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THE GOLDEN LEGEND 



BY ^ 

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 



WITH NOTES 

BY 

SAMUEL ARTHUR BENT, A. M. 



10 





HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

Boston: 4 Park Street; New York: 11 East Seventeenth Street 

1887 



/ 



Copyright, 1851 and 1879, 
BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 

Copyright, 1887, 
By HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. 

All rights reserved. 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge: 
Elecfcrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Co. 



PEEFACE. 



The Golden Legend was first published in 1851. 
The title was derived from the epithet given to Vora- 
gine's Legends of the Saints, " Aurea Legenda^"* which 
was said by its admirers to exceed all other books, as 
gold passeth in value all other metals. So the story 
upon which this poem is founded " seems to me," says 
Longfellow, in his original note, " to surpass all other 
legends in beauty and significance. It exhibits amid the 
corruptions of the Middle Ages, the virtue of disinter- 
estedness and self-sacrifice, and the power of Faith, 
Hope, and Charity, sufficient for all the exigencies of 
life and death." 

The story was first told by a Minnesinger of the twelfth 
century, Hartmann von Aue, in the poem entitled Der 
Avme Heinrich. The hero, a man of wealth and noble 
birth, is suddenly stricken with leprosy, which he is told 
can only be cured by the sacrifice of the life of a maiden 
who may be willing to die for him. This maiden is 
found in the family of one of " Poor Henry's " tenants, 
who receives him after the world has cast him off. Her 
offer to die for her lord is accepted, and they travel to- 



iv PREFACE. 

gether to Salerno, where the sacrifice is to be made. But 
at the last moment Henry refuses to accept hfe at this 
price, is miraculously cured, and returns home with the 
peasant girl, whom he makes his wife. 

The Golden Legend forms the second part of Long- 
fellow's Trilogy of Christus, of which The Divine Trag- 
edy, or Life of Christ, is the first part, and The New Eng- 
land Tragedies, a picture of modern Christianity, the 
third. The notes to the present edition of The Golden 
Legend are intended to offer the general reader sufficient 
explanation of whatever may be obscure in the allusions 
to a time but httle understood ; while they will enable the 
student to pursue his investigation into the details of 
mediaeval life presented in literary, artistic, and histor- 
ical authorities within easy reach. He will at the same 
time be struck by the fidelity of the picture which the 
poet here draws, not merely of the century of the great 
awakening, the thirteenth, but of that entire transitional 
period which the French, more accurate than ourselves, 
call le moyen age — the Middle Age. S. A. B. 

Boston, July, 1886. 



CONTENTS. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 

PAGE 

Prologue * . .7 

I. 

I. The Castle of Vautsberg on the Rhine . .12 
IL Courtyard of the Castle 24 

II. 

I. A Farm in the Odenwald 31 

II. A Room in the Farm-House .... 41 

HI. Elsie's Chamber 46 

IV. The Chamber of Gottlieb and Ursula . . 47 

V. A Village Church 51 

VI. A Room in the Farm-House .... 63 
VII. In the Garden 65 

III. 

I. A Street in Strasburg 67 

II. Square in Front of the Cathedral . . 74 

III. In the Cathedral 80 

IV. The Nativity: a Miracle-Play ... 84 



VI CONTENTS. 

IV. 

I. The Road to Hikschau 103 

II. The Convent of Hlrschau .... 106 

III. The Sckiptorium 113 

IV. The Cloisters 117 

V. The Chapel 122 

VI. The Refectory 125 

VII. The Neighboring Nunnery .... 136 

V. 

I. A Covered Bridge at Lucerne .... 145 

II. The Devil's Bridge 150 

III. The St. Gothard Pass 152 

IV. At the Foot of the Alps . . . . 154 

V. The Inn at Genoa 161 

VI. At Sea 164 

VI. 

I. The School of Salerno 168 

II. The Farm-House in the Odenwald . . 182 

III. The Castle of Vautsberg on the Rhine . . 187 

Epilogue 192 



PROLOGUE. 

THE SPIRE OF STRASBURG CATHEDRAL. 

Night and Storm. Lucifer,* ivtth the Powers of the Air,^ trying 
to tear doivn the Cross. 

LuciFEK. Hasten I hasten ! 
O ye spirits ! 

From its station drag the ponderous 
Cross of iron, that to mock us 
5 Is uplifted high in air ! 

Voices. O, wo cannot ! 
For around it 
• All the Saints and Guardian Angels 



* Lncifer. The Light-bearer, applied by the ancients to Venus when morn- 
ing-star. As the Chaldeans studied the stars, and claimed to be under their 
special protection, the name was given by Isaiah (xiv. 12) to Nebuchadnezzar 
in his pride and subsequent fall. Similar words of Christ {St. Luke x. 18), "I 
beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven," caused St. Jerome and other 
early Fathers to give the name Lucifer to Satan, {v. p. 66.) For the mediae- 
val conception of the Evil Spirit, tK Milman's lAttin Chi-ist. Bk. xiv. ch 2. 

t Powers of the Air. The idea that the air is filled with spiritual beings, good 
and evil, the region nearest the earth being the abode of the latter {v. Eph. ii. 
2 and vi. 12), was derived from rabbinical sources, and was common to the 
Greeks and Romans. Connected with this was the prevalent notion that evil 
spirits have the power of raising storms and producing pestilences, {v. King 
John, iii. 2.) The cross, then, seems to mock the evil spirits into whose ele- 
ment it is raised. 

8. Guardian Angels. The belief in the guardianship of man by angels was 
general in the Middle Ages. {v. Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 3 ; Julius Ccesar, 
iii. 2.) Thus Luther says : "We should be in despair if we saw for how 
many angels one devil makes work to do." The guardian angel accompa- 
nied the soul to heaven, {v. Hamlet, v. 2, and LitteWs Living Age, No. 1080, 1. ) 
Dogs howl at the approach of death because they can see the guardian angel 



8 ' LONGFELLOW. 

Throng in legions to protect it ; 
10 They defeat us everywhere ! 

The Bells. Laudo Deum verum ! 
Plebem voco ! 
Congrego clerum. 

LuciFEK. Lower ! lower ! 
15 Hover downward I 

Seize the loud, vociferous bells, and 
Clasliing, clanging, to the pavement 
Hurl them from their windy tower ! 

Voices. All thy thunders 
20 Here are harmless ! 

For these bells have been anointed, 
And baptized with holy water ! 
They defy our utmost power. 

The Bells. Defunctos ploro ! 
26 Pestem f ugo ! 
Festa decoro ! 

Lucifer. Shake the casements ! 
Break the painted 
Panes, that flame with gold and crimson ; 

ready to bear away the soul of the departed, {v. p. 99, note.) The Church 
proved the existence of tutelar spirits by Acts xii. 15. 

22. Baptized. The ceremony of baptizing bells, begun in the tenth century, 
has continued to modern times. It was supposed that demons were affrighted 
by the sound of consecrated bells calling to prayer ; that destruction by light- 
ning was averted, and the spirits of the storm defeated. 

22. Holy Water. The use of a consecrated mixture of salt and water, dating 
from about 120 a. d., may be traced to pre-Chri.stian practice, both Jewish and 
pagan. At the entrance to Greek temples the worshippers sprinkled them- 
selves, and in the old Jewish ritual the people were sprinkled by the priests 
from a basin in front of the altar. 

28, 29. Painted Panes. Mosaics of colored glass were used for windows in 



rilE GOLDEN LEGEND. 9 

30 Scatter them like leaves of Autumn, 
Swept away before the blast ! 

Voices. O, we cannot ! 
The Archangel 

Michael flames from every window, 
35 With the sword of fire that drove us 
Headlong, out of heaven, aghast ! 

The Bells. Funera plango ! 
Fulgura f ran go ! 
Sabbata pango ! 

40 Lucifer. Aim your lightnings 
At the oaken, 
Massive, iron-studded portals ! 

St. Sophia, Constantinople, in the sixth century, and in Roman basilicas at 
the same time. Workers in glass were invited to England from France in the 
eighth century. In Germany, the first painted windows were those of the 
monastery of Hirschau, which were made by the monks themselves. 

34. Michael. First among the archangels, the special protector of the Jew- 
ish nation, patron of warriors, leader of the angelic hosts, especially against 
the rebel angels; hence, here, an object of terror to evil spirits, {v. Par. 
Lost, vi. ; Mrs. Jameson's Sacred and Legend. Art, i. 94.) 

37. Funera Plango. Schiller took the words, '■'■Vivos voco, Mortuos plango, 
Fulgura frangoj'' which are inscribed on a bell of the Cathedral of Schaffhau- 
sen (1486), as the motto of his Song of the Bell. The idea of the personality 
of bells is appropriately used here. They were thought to speak the feelings 
of the pious donor, or the voice of the church, as one at Strasburg : "I am 
the voice of life. I call you — come — pray." This personality is expressed 
in a Song of the Bell by a Swiss poet, quoted in Hyperion, Bk. iii. ch. 3. 



Say, how canst thou mourn ? 
How canst thou rejoice ? 

Art but metal dull ! 
And yet all our sorrowings. 
And all our rejoicings, 
Thou dost feel them all ! " 



10 LONGFELLOW. 

Sack the house of God, and scatter 
Wide the ashes of the dead ! 

45 Voices. O, we cannot ! 
The Apostles 

And the Martyrs, wrapped in mantles, 
Stand as warders at the entrance, 
Stand as sentinels o'erhead ! 

60 The Bells. Excite lentos ! 

Dissipo ventos ! 
Paco cruentos ! ^ 

Lucifer. Baffled ! baffled ! 
Inefficient, 
55 Craven spirits ! leave this labor 
Unto Time, the great Destroyer ! 
Come away, ere night is gone ! 

Voices. Onward ! onward ! 
With the night-wind, 
60 Over field and farm and forest, 

Lonely homestead, darksome hamlet, 
Blighting all we breathe upon ! 

They sweep away. Organ * and Gregorian Chant, t 

44. Ashes of the dead. Burial in churches was recommended by Gregory I , 
at the end of the sixth century, that prayers for the repose of the souls of the 
dead might thus be naturally suggested to relatives and friends. 

47. Martyrs. Statues of saints and monarchs stand in the deep recesses 
of the portals of European churches, or were overthrown at the Reformation. 

* Organ. Cassiodorus describes organs as early as the fifth century, but they 
were first used in church services about G57, being introduced into Europe 
by the Greek emperor. They owed their development to the monks who had 
learned to make and play upon them by the tenth century. 

t Gregorian Chant. The musical ritual of the Roman church, first arranged 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 11 

Choir. Nocte surgentes 
Vigilemus omnes ! * 

by St. Ambrose, was reformed by Gregory I. (550-604), to give it greater grav- 
ity and simplicity. In every monastery the compulsory celebration of certain 
services in the choir seven times a day, beginning as here at midnight, made 
the study of sacred music obligatory. The Gregorian chant is still used in the 
services of the Roman Catholic Church. 

* The bells of Strasburg Cathedral, nine in number, although not forming a 
carillon, or chime, are noteworthy for their inscriptions. The largest, the 
"Holy Ghost" beU, weighing eight tons, was cast in 1375, and bears the 
motto, O Rex Glorice Christus veni cum pace. The second, the "Storm 
Bell," originally warned the traveller on the forest-covered plain of Alsace 
of the approach of storms, and directed him to a place of safety. The third 
bell bears a German inscription saying that its duty is to " ring out the bad and 
ring in the good," a striking coincidence with Teimyson's " Ring out the false, 
ring in the true." (In Memoriani, cvi.) The " Noon Bell," with the inscrip- 
tion quoted in the note on page 9, was removed during the French Revolution, 
when several hundred statuettes, which adorned the outside of the Cathedral, 
were overthrown, and never replaced. Some of the bells have been recast, one 
as early as 1351. {v. LittelVs Living Age, civ. 753 ; Chambers' s Journal, xxiv. 
87. ) The German artillerists spared the Cathedral as much as possible during 
the siege of 1870, and this masterpiece of German devotion and genius received 
but slight injury. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 
I. 

THE CASTLE OF VAUTSBERG * ON THE RHINE. 

A chamber in a tower. Pkince Henry, sitting alone, ill and 
restless. Midnight. 

Prince Henry. I cannot sleep ! my fervid brain 
Calls up the vanished Past again, 
And throws its misty splendors deep 
Into the pallid realms of sleep ! 
5 A breath from that far-distant shore 
Comes freshening ever more and more, 
And wafts o'er intervening seas 
Svi^eet odors from the Hesperides ! 
A wind, that through the corridor 
10 Just stirs the curtain, and no more. 
And, touching the seolian strings, 

* Vautsherg. Upon the ruins of the mediaeval castle of Vautsberg, or Vogt- 
berg, below Bingen, a new castle, called Rheinstein, was built by a Prince of 
Prussia in 1825, and furnished in imitation of the knightly dwellings of the 
Middle Ages. The old ruin was described by Longfellow in a letter from Giit- 
tingen in 1829 {v. Samuel Longfellow's Life of Loncjfelloic, i. 170), as the most 
beautiful one on the Rhine. Vautsberg was condemned as a stronghold of the 
robber barons who levied tolls upon travellers, and was destroyed about 
1282. 

8. Hesperides. Daughters of Atlas and Hesperis, guardians of the golden 
apples given to Juno on her marriage ; hence, as here, the gardens where the 
apples were kept, wrongly identified with the Happy Islands, into which, as 
into the Elysian Fields, famous heroes passed without dying, or with the 
lands beyond the North Wind (hyperborean), where in perpetual sunshine 
people lived in peace a thousand years, {v. Hawthorne's Wotider-Book, — 
The Three Apples ; Morris's Earthly Paradise, — " December." 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 13 

Faints with the burden that it brings ! 

Come back ! ye friendships long departed ! 

That like o'erflowing streamlets started, 
16 And now are dwindled, one by one. 

To stony channels in the sun ! 

Come back ! ye friends, whose lives are ended, 

Come back, with all that light attended. 

Which seemed to darken and decay 
20 When ye arose and went away ! 

They come, the shapes of joy and woe, 

The airy crowds of long-ago. 

The dreams and fancies known of yore, 

That have been, and shall be no more. 
25 They change the cloisters of the night 

Into a garden of delight ; 

They make the dark and dreary hours 

Open and blossom into flowers ! 

I would not sleep ! I love to be 
30 Again in their fair company ; 

But ere my lips can bid them stay, 

They pass and vanish quite away ! 

Alas ! our memories may retrace 

Each circumstance of time and place, 
35 Season and scene come back again. 

And outward things unchanged remain ; 

The rest we cannot reinstate ; 

Ourselves we cannot re-create, 

Nor set our souls to the same key 
40 Of the remembered harmony ! 

Rest ! rest ! 0, give me rest and peace ! 
The thought of Ufe that ne'er shall cease 



14 LONGFELLOW. 

Has something in it like despair, 
A weight I am too weak to bear ! 
45 Sweeter to this afflicted breast 
The thought of never-ending rest ! 
Sweeter the undisturbed and deep 
Tranquillity of endless sleep ! 

A flash of lightning, out of which Lucifer appears, in the garb 
of a travelling Physician.* 

Lucifer. All hail Prince Henry ! 
BO Prince Henry, startiJig. Who is it speaks ? 

Who and what are you ? 

Lucifer. One who seeks 

A moment's audience with the Prince. 
Prince Henry, When came you in ? 
85 Lucifer. A moment since. 

I found your study door unlocked. 
And thought you answered when I knocked. 
Prince Henry. I did not hear you. 
Lucifer. You heard the thunder : 

60 It was loud enough to waken the dead. 
And it is not a matter of special wonder 
That, when God is walking overhead, 
You should not hear my feeble tread. 

Prince Henry. What may your wish or purpose 
be? 
65 Lucifer. Nothing or everything, as it pleases 
Your Highness. You behold in me 

* The first travelling physicians were monks who left their monasteries, the 
seats of medical study, to wander through the land, devoting themselves to 
the sick. Their garb had a clerical character : a wide felt hat, a mantle, de- 
rived from statues of ^sculapius, fastened round the waist by a belt, to wliich 
were suspended a pilgrim's wallet and a bag containing mixtures, ointments, 
and vegetable extracts. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 15 

Only a travelling Physician ; 
One of the few who have a mission 
To cure incurable diseases, 
70 Or those that are called so. 

Prince Henry. Can you bring 

The dead to life ? 

LuCTFER. Yes ; very nearly. 

And, what is a wiser and better thing, 
75 Can keep the living from ever needing 
Such an unnatural, strange proceeding, 
By showing conclusively and clearly 
That death is a stupid blunder merely, 
And not a necessity of our lives. 
80 My being here is accidental ; 

The storm that against your casement drives. 
In the little village below waylaid me. 
And there I heard with a secret delight, 
Of your maladies physical and mental, 
85 Which neither astonished nor dismayed me. 
And I hastened hither, though late in the night, 
To proffer my aid ! 

Prince Henry, ironiGallij. For this you came ! 
Ah, how can I ever hope to requite 
90 This honor from one so erudite ? 

Lucifer. The honor is mine, or will be when 
I have cured your disease. 

Prince Henry. But not till then. 

Lucifer. What is your illness ? 

72. Bead to life. Prince Henry, being socially dead, is eager to learn of some 
means to resuscitate life, rather than to prolong it. 

78. Death a blunder. Hence the search for the elixir vitce (elixir of life), or 
for the Panacea, the universal remedy, which should prevent the accident of 
death. To the belief in the fountain in which one might bathe and become 
young again were due such expeditions as that of Ponce de Leon, by which 
Florida was discovered. 



16 LONGFELLOW. 

95 Prince Henry. It has no name. 

A smouldering, dull, perpetual flame, 

As in a kiln, burns in my veins, 

Sending up vapors to the head ; 

My heart has become a dull lagoon, 
100 Which a kind of leprosy drinks and drains ; 

I am accounted as one who is dead. 

And, indeed, I think that I shall be soon. 
Lucifer. And has Gordonius the Divine, 

In his famous Lily of Medicine, — 
105 I see the book lies open before you, — 

No remedy potent enough to restore you ? 
Prince Henry. None whatever ! 
Lucifer. The dead are dead, 

And their oracles dumb, when questioned 
110 Of the new diseases that human life 

Evolv-es in its progress, rank and rife. 

Consult the dead upon things that were. 

But the living only on things that are. 

Have you done this, by the ajDj^liance 
115 And aid of doctors ? 

Prince Henry. Ay, whole schools 

Of doctors, with their learned rules ; 

But the case is quite beyond their science. 

Even the doctors of Salern 
120 Send me back word they can discern 

100. Leprosy. In the poem of Hartmann von Aue, " Poor Henry " is afflicted 
with actual leprosy, which the delicacy of a later age only suggests, while 
giving, however, its legal effect, wliich was social death. 

103. Gordonius. Bernard Gordon, a Scotch professor at the Medical School 
of Montpellier, wrote in 1307 a treatise entitled Lilium Iledicince, which was 
widely spread by translations from the original Latin. 
109. Oracles. Of. 

" Tlie oracles are dumb. 
No voice or hideous hum," etc. 

Milton, Ode to the Nativity. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 17 

No cure for a malady like this, 
Save one which in its nature is 
Impossible, and cannot be ! 

Lucifer. That sounds oracular ! 
125 Prince Henry. Unendurable ! 

Lucifer. What is their remedy ? 
Prince Henry. You shall see ; 

Writ in this scroll is the mystery. 

Lucifer, reading. " Not to be cured, yet not in- 
curable ! 
130 The only remedy that remains 

Is the blood that flows from a maiden's veins, 
Who of her own free will shall die. 
And give her life as the price of yours ! " 
That is the strangest of all cures, 
135 And one, I think, you will never try ; 
The prescription you may well put by, 
As something impossible to find 
Before the world itself shall end ! 
And yet who knows ? One cannot say 
140 That into some maiden's brain that kind 
Of madness will not find its way. 
Meanwhile permit me to recommend, 
As the matter admits of no delay. 
My wonderful Catholicon, 
146 Of very subtile and magical powers ! 

Prince Henry. Purge with your nostrums and 
drugs infernal 

124. Oracular. The responses of the priests at the seats of Grecian oracles 
were expressed in a double sense, to preserve their reputation in any event, so 
that the word " oracular " has the meaning of ambiguous. 

144. Catholicon. Another term for the Panacea, or universal remedy. Prince 
Henry understands it to mean a purgative mixture of powder and honey, in- 
stead of the alcohol which Lucifer offers him, 
2 



18 LONGFELLOW. 

The spouts and gargoyles of these towers, 

Not me ! My faith is utterly gone 

In every power but the Power Supernal ! 
150 Pray tell me, of what school are you ? 

Lucifer. Both of the Old and of the New ! 

The school of Hermes Trismegistus, 

Who uttered his oracles sublime 

Before the Olympiads, in the dew 
166 Of the early dusk and dawn of Time, 

The reign of dateless old Hephsestus ! 

As northward, from its Nubian springs, 

The Nile, forever new and old. 

Among the living and the dead, 
160 Its mighty, mystic stream has rolled ; 

So, starting from its fountain-head 

Under the lotus-leaves of Isis, 

152. Hermes Trismegistus. The Egyptian Thoth, counsellor of Osiris, iden- 
tified by the Greeks with their o\vn Hermes, and called Trismegistus, the 
thrice or superlatively greatest, because, while maintaining the unity of God, 
he asserted the existence of three supreme powers. To him were attributed 
the sacred books of the Egyptians, and he has hence been called the inventor 
of hieroglyphics, astrology, and other mysterious sciences. The works known 
by his name are, however, of the fourth century a. d. , and were constantly 
appealed to by the alchemists of the Middle Ages. He is mentioned in Whit- 
tier's Snow-Bound. 

154. Olympiads. The occurrence of the Olympian games every fourth year, 
at Elis, began to be used as a chronological era 77G b. c. 

156. Hephaestus. Hephsestus was the Greek Vulcan, the god of fire and of 
metallic workmanship. Like Lucifer, he was thrust from heaven for an insult 
to Juno, falling " a simmier's day " upon the island of Lemnos. (v. Par. Lost, 
i. 740.) 

162. Lotus. An aquatic plant somewhat like the water-lily, bearing white 
flowers, the form of which was used in the capitals of Egyptian columns. In 
art the head of Isis was crowaied with the lotus-flower. Of the efi:ect of eating 
the fruit of the lotus-bush, a white bean also sacred to Osiris and Isis, v. 
Odyssey, Bk. ix., and Tennyson's Lotus-Eaters. 

162. Lsis. The female counterpart of Osiris ; inventor of the cultivation of 
wheat and barley, goddess of the earth, identified with the Greek Ceres, after- 
ward with the moon, as Osiris with Bacchus and the sun. Milton includes Isis, 
Osiris, and Or us among the fallen divinities. Par. Lost, i. 478, and Ode to the 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 19 

From the dead demigods of eld, 

Through long, unbroken lines of kmgs 
165 Its course the sacred art has held. 

Unchecked, unchanged by man's devices. 

This art the Arabian Geber taught. 

And in alembics, finely wrought. 

Distilling herbs and flowers, discovered 
170 The secret that so long had hovered 

Upon the misty verge of Truth, 

The Elixir of Perpetual Youth, 

Called Alcohol, in the Arab speech ! 

Like him, this wondrous lore I teach. 
175 Prixce Henry. What ! an adept ? 

Lucifer. Nor less, nor more ! 

Prince Henry. I am a reader of your books, 

A lover of that mystic lore ! 

With such a piercing glance it looks 
180 Into great Nature's open eye, 

165. Sacred art. The name given by its devotees to alchemy, the art of 
transmuting basei- metals into gold and of prolonging life by means of the 
elixir vi/ce^ an invigorating substance obtained by distillation. Alchemy was 
first practised at Alexandria in the third century, hence " starting under the 
lotus-leaves." From it chemistry was developed. 

167. Geher. An Arabian alchemist, who probably flourished in the eighth 
century, and is said to have invented algebra and discovered several chemical 
substances. Longfellow in Hijperion (Bk. iii. ch. 8) makes him a resident of 
Spain; otliers of Mesopotamia. He is here the representative of the New 
School, as Hermes of the Old. 

173. Alcohol. The art of distilling alcohol is included among the exploits of 
the alchemists of the fifteenth century, but a native of Languedoc, Arnauld de 
Villeneuve, who lived at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and investi- 
gated the relation of chemical science to medicine, is said to have been the 
first to make alcohol and spirits of wine. 

175. Adept. A term peculiar to the Hermetic philosophy (that derived from 
Hermes Trismegistus), being given to the consummate proficients in alchemy. 
It was a tradition that there were always twelve adepts, and that the places of 
those who died were immediately supplied by others. Lucifer, therefore, as- 
sumes the highest position in the "sacred science," but Prince Henry laments 
that although " a lover of that mystic lore," he himself is not an adept. 



20 LONGFELLOW. 

And sees within it trembling lie 
The portrait of the Deity ! 
And yet, alas ! with all my pains, 
The secret and the mystery 
186 Have baffled and eluded me, 

Unseen the grand result remains ! 

Lucifer, shoivlng a flask. Behold it here! this 
little flask 
Contains the wonderful quintessence, 
The perfect flower and efflorescence, 
190 Of all the knowledge man can ask ! 
Hold it up thus against the light ! 

Prince Henry. How limpid, pure, and crystal- 
line. 
How quick, and tremulous, and bright 
The little wavelets dance and shine, 
196 As were it the Water of Life in sooth ! 

Lucifer. It is ! It assuages every pain, 
Cures all disease, and gives again 
To age the swift delights of youth. 
Inhale its fragrance. 
200 Prince Henry. It is sweet. 
A thousand different odors meet 
And mingle in its rare perfume. 
Such as the winds of summer waft 
At open windows through a room ! 
206 Lucifer. Will you not taste it ? 

Prince Henry. Will one draught 

Suffice ? 

198. Delights of youth. This is what Amaiild de Villeneuve says of brandy, 
the invention of which has been wrongly attributed to him : " This eau de vin 
is called by some eau de vie, and justly so, since it prolongs life. ... It pro- 
longs health, dissipates superfluous matters, revives the spirits, and preserves 
youth." 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 21 

Lucifer. If not, you can drink more. 
Prince Henry. Into this crystal goblet pour 
210 So much as safely I may drink. 

Lucifer, ijouring. Let not the quantity alarm 
you; 
You may drink all ; it will not harm you. 

Prince Henry. I am as one who on the brink 
Of a dark river stands and sees 
216 The waters flow, the landscape dim 
Around him-waver, wheel, and swim, 
And, ere he plunges, stops to think 
Into what whirlpools he may sink ; 
One moment pauses, and no more, 
220 Then madly plunges from the shore I 
Headlong into the mysteries 
Of life and death I boldly leap, 
Nor fear the fateful current's sweep, 
Nor what in ambush lurks below ! 
225 For death is better than disease I 

An Angel with an ceolian harp hovers in the air. 

The Angel. Woe ! woe ! eternal woe ! 

Not only the whispered prayer 

Of love, 

But the imprecations of hate, 
230 Reverberate 

For ever and ever through the air 

Above ! 

This fearful curse 

Shakes the great universe ! 
235 Lucifer, disaj^jpearing. Drink ! drink ! 

And thy soul shall sink 

Down into the dark abyss. 



22 LONGFELLOW. 

Into the infinite abyss, 

From which no plummet nor rope 
240 Ever drew up the silver sand of hope ! 

Prince Henry, drinking. It is like a draught of 
fire ! 

Through every vein 

I feel again 

The fever of youth, the soft desire ; 
246 A rapture that is almost pain 

Throbs in my heart and fills my brain ! 

O joy ! O joy ! I feel 

The band of steel 

That so long and heavily has pressed 
250 Upon my breast 

Uplifted, and the malediction 

Of my affliction 

Is taken from me, and my weary breast 

At length finds rest. 
266 The Angel. It is but the rest of the fire, from 
which the air has been taken ! 

It is but the rest of the sand, when the hourglass is 
not shaken ! 

It is but the rest of the tide between the ebb and the 



fl 



ow 



It is but the rest of the wind between the flaws that 

blow ! 
With fiendish laughter, 
260 Hereafter, 

This false physician 

Will mock thee in thy perdition. 

Prince Henry. Speak ! speak ! 
Who says that I am ill ? 
265 I am not ill ! I am not weak ! 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 23 

The trance, the swoon, the dream, is o'er! 
I feel the chill of death no more \ 
At length, 

I stand renewed in all my strength ! 
270 Beneath me I can feel 

The great earth stagger and reel, 
As if the feet of a descending God 
Upon its surface trod. 

And like a pehhle it rolled beneath his heel ! 
275 This, brave physician ! this 
Is thy great Palingenesis ! 

Drinks again. 
The Angel. Touch the goblet no more ! 
It will make thy heart sore 
To its very core ! 
280 Its perfume is the breath 
Of the Angel of Death, 
And the light that within it lies 
Is the flash of his evil eyes. 
Beware ! O, beware ! 
286 For sickness, sorrow, and care 
All are there ! 

Pkince Henry, sinking back. O thou voice 
within my breast ! 
Why entreat me, why upbraid me. 
When the steadfast tongues of truth 
290 And the flattering hopes of youth 

Have all deceived me and betrayed me ? 

276. Palingenesis. Re-creation ; a word used by the alchemists, " who 
believed," says Longfellow in a letter, " that form is indestructible, and that 
out of the ashes of a rose the rose itself could be recousti-ucted, — if only they 
could discover the great secret of nature." It was accomplished by the appli- 
cation of heat in the experiment related by Sir Kenelm Digby. {v. Sir Thomas 
Browne's Religio 3Iedici, oh. 48, note ; also Longfellow's Palingenesis.) 



24 LONGFELLOW. 

Give me, give me rest, O rest ! 

Golden visions wave and hover, 

Golden vapors, waters streaming-, 
295 Landscapes moving, changing, gleaming ! 

I am hke a happy lover 

Who illumines life with dreaming ! 

Brave physician ! Rare physician ! 

Well hast thou fulfilled thy mission ! 
His head falls on his book. 
300 The Angel, recedijig. Alas ! alas ! 

Like a vapor the golden vision 

Shall fade and pass. 

And thou wilt find in thy heart again 

Only the blight of pain, 
30ft And bitter, bitter, bitter contrition ! 

COURT-YARD OF THE CASTLE. 

Hubert, standing by the gateway. 

Hubert. How sad the grand old castle looks ! 
O'erhead, the unmolested rooks 
Upon the turret's windy top 
Sit, talking of the farmer's crop ; 
310 Here in the court-yard springs the grass, 
So few are now the feet that pass ; 
The stately peacocks, bolder grown, 

307. Eoois. The ancient nobility prided themselves on having a rookery in 
the neighborhood of their castles, because rooks were regarded as birds of good 
omen. On this account no one was permitted to kill them under severe pen- 
alties. 

312. Peacocks. The peacock was brought to Palestine by Solomon's ships 
from Persia, whither it was banished for assisting in the entrance of Satan to 
the Garden of Eden. It was introduced into Europe at a very early date, 
being mythologically sacred to Jvmo. Oriental legend represented it as immor- 
tal, receiving the attribute of the fabled phoenix, which became immortaton 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 25 

Come hopping down the steps of stone, 

As if the castle were their own ; 
816 And T, the poor old seneschal, 

Haunt, like a ghost, the banquet-hall. 

Alas ! the merry guests no more 

Crowd through the hospitable door ; 

No eyes with youth and passion shine, 
320 No cheeks grow redder than the wine ; 

No song, no laugh, no jovial din 

Of drinking wassail to the pin ; 

But all is silent, sad, and drear, 

And now the only sounds I hear 
325 Are the hoarse rooks upon the walls, 

And horses stamping in their stalls ! 
A horn sounds. 

What ho ! that merry, sudden blast 

Reminds me of the days long past ! 

And, as of old resounding, grate 
330 The heavy hinges of the gate. 

And, clattering loud, with iron clank, 

Down goes the sounding bridge of plank, 

refusing to eat of the forbidden fruit. In the Middle Ages the peacock was 
higlily esteemed as an article of food, and it was brought to table in full 
plumage, amid a flourish of trumpets and the applause of the guests. 

322. Wassail. The exclamation Waes-kail, " Health to you ! " which greeted 
the returning Saxon warrior, became a salutation in England on New Year's 
Eve and Day over the spiced ale-cup, hence called the wassail bowl ; the word 
was afterward applied to the drinking-bout itself, (v. Hamlet, i. 4 ; Mac- 
beth, i. 7.) 

322. Pin. King Edgar of Britain, to check the intemperance of the times, 
ordained that pins should be fastened into drinking cups at regular distances, 
and that whoever drank beyond his pin should be punished. As afterward 
whoever drank short of his pin or beyond it was obliged to drink again, the 
device encouraged the intemperance it was designed to prevent. 

332. Bridge of plank. The gate takes the place of the usual portcullis, 
which was of iron, and had a row of sharp spikes sliding downwards in grooves 
in the masonry of the tower. The bridge is the draw-bridge over the moat, 
which was lowered to admit travellers. When the portcullis was down and 
the bridge raised, entrance or exit was impossible, {v. Scott's Marmion, vi.) 



26 LONGFELLOW. 

As If it were in haste to greet 
The pressure of a traveller's feet ! 

Enter Walter the Minnesinger.* 
335 Walter. How now, my friend ! This looks 
quite lonely ! 
No banner flying from the walls, 
No pages and no seneschals, 
No warders, and one porter only ! 
Is it you, Hubert ? 
340 Hubert. Ah I Master Walter ! 

Walter. Alas I how forms and faces alter ! 
I did not know you. You look older I 
Your hair has grown much grayer and thinner, 
And you stoop a little in the shoulder ! 
345 Hubert. Alack ! I am a poor old sinner, 
And, like these towers, begin to moulder ; 
And you have been absent many a year ! 
Walter. How is the Prince ? 
Hubert. He is not here ; 

360 He has been ill : and now has fled. 

Walter. Speak it out frankly : say he 's dead ! 
Is it not so ? 

Hubert. No ; if you please, 
A strange, mysterious disease 
355 Fell on him with a sudden blight. 
Whole hours together he would stand 

* Walter von der Vogelweide (of the bird-meadow), oue of the most cele- 
brated of the minnesingers (miune=:love) ; born near Botzen, in Austrian 
Tyrol, in 1170, he wandered with his violin over Central Europe, singing at 
the courts of the Emperor and lesser sovereigns; took part in the musical 
tournament of the Wartburg, 1207 ; accompanied Frederick II. on the Sixth 
Crusade, 1227 ; was buried within the precincts of the cathedral of Wiirzburg, 
where a monument was erected to his memory in 1843. His poems have been 
translated into modern German by Simrock, Schroter, and others, {v. Long- 
fellow's Walter von der Vogelweide, and Scherer's Hist, of Ger. Lit., i. ch. 7.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 27 

Upon the terrace, In a dream, 

Resting his head upon his hand, 

Best pleased when he was most alone, 
360 Like Saint John NejDomuck in stone, 

Looking down into a stream. 

In the Round Tower, night after night, 

He sat, and bleared his eyes with books ; 

Until one morning we found him there 
365 Stretched on the floor, as if in a swoon 

He had fallen from his chair. 

We hardly recognized his sweet looks ! 
Walter. Poor Prince ! 

Hubert. I think he might have mended ; 

370 And he did mend ; but very soon 

The priests came flocking in, like rooks, 

With all their crosiers and their crooks. 

And so at last the matter ended. 
Walter. How did it end ? 
375 Hubert. Why, in Saint Rochus 

3G0. St. John Nepomuck. St. John, a canon of St. Augustine, called " of 
Nepomvick " from his birth-place ; refusing to divulge the confession of the 
wife of the Emperor Wenceslas V., he was thrown by the emperor's order 
over the bridge into the Moldau at Prague ; hence he is the patron saint of 
silence, and in Bohemia and Austria of bridges and streams, and his statue 
stands on the bridge at Prague. 

372. Crosiers and crooks. The bishop's pastoral crook is generally derived 
from the shepherd's crook, but certam antiquaries regard it, as well as the 
litiius of the ancient augurs, as intimately connected with the divining-rod, 
which was thought to be potent in tlie detection of metallic veins, hidden 
treasures, and water, and which Cox m his Aryan Mythologij associates with 
the trident of Neptune, the spear of Apollo, and the cross of Osiris, {v. Hard- 
wick's Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore, ch. 13.) The crosier (Old 
French croisier, Lat. crux) was the distinctive staff of an archbishop, termi- 
nating in a cross, instead of a curved head, like the bishop's crook. 

375. St. Eochus. The chapel of St. Roch occupies the summit of a hill 
above Bingen It contains an altar-piece given by Goethe, and is thronged on 
the Sunday after August 16, St. Roch's Day, by pilgrims offering prayers to 
the saint, who is the patron of the sick, and the averter of plague and pesti- 
lence, (v. Clement's Legend, and Myth. Art, 265.) 



28 LONGFELLO W. 

They made him stand, and wait his doom ; 

And, as if he were condemned to the tomb, 

Began to mutter their hocus-pocus. 

First, the Mass for the Dead they chanted, 
380 Then three times laid upon his head 

A shovelful of churchyard clay, 

Saying to him, as he stood undaunted, 

" This is a sign that thou art dead. 

So in thy heart be penitent ! " 
385 And forth from the chapel door he went 

Into disgrace and banishment. 

Clothed in a cloak of hodden gray, 

And bearing a wallet, and a bell. 

Whose sound should be a perpetual knell 
390 To keep all travellers away. 

Walter. O, horrible fate I Outcast, rejected. 

As one with pestilence infected ! 

Hubert. Then was the family tomb unsealed, 

And broken helmet, sword and shield, 
395 Buried together, in common wreck. 

As is the custom, when the last 

Of any princely house has passed. 

And tlirice, as with a trumpet blast, 

A herald shouted down the stair 
400 The words of warning and despair, — 
" O Hoheneck ! O Hoheneck ! " 

379. Mass for the Dead. Often called the requiem, from the opening words : 
Bequiem ceternavi dona eis, domine. {v. Hamlet, v. 1.) The word " Mass " is 
derived from Ite, missa est, "Go, the congregation is dismissed,"' at the end of 
the office of the celebration of the Passion of Christ in the Catholic Church. 
Prayers for the dead were introduced about 190 A. d. 

388. Wallet and Bell. Although leprosy is but indirectly alluded to, as on 
page 16, an exact description, even to the warning bell, is here given of the 
ceremony of excommunicating a leper, who was then considered socially and 
politically dead. This ceremony was common in the twelfth and thirteenth 
centuries, until the erection of leper hospitals. 

401. Hoheneck ! To the ceremony of excommunication is here added the 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 29 

Walter. Still in my soul that cry goes on, — 

Forever gone ! forever gone ! 

Ah, what a cruel sense of loss, * 
405 Like a black shadow, would fall across 

The hearts of all, if he should die ! 

His gracious presence upon earth 

Was as a fire upon a hearth ; 

As pleasant songs, at morning sung, 
410 The words that dropped from his sweet tongue 

Strengthened our hearts ; or, heard at night, 

Made all our slumbers soft and light. 

Where is he ? 
Hubert. In the Odenwald. 
415 Some of his tenants, unappalled 

By fear of death, or priestly word, — 

A holy family, that make 

Each meal a Supper of the Lord, — 

Have him beneath their watch and ward, 
420 For love of him, and Jesus' sake ! 

Pray you come in. For why should I 

With out-door hospitality 

My prince's friend thus entertain ? 
Walter. I would a moment here remain. 
425 But you, good Hubert, go before, 

Fill me a goblet of May-drink, 

As aromatic as the May 

service performed at the burial of the last of one's race, as when the herald 
challenges in vain an answer to his call, " O Hoheneck ! " 

416. Fear of death. Unappalled by fear of the penalty threatened those 
who should harbor an excommunicated person. 

426. May-drink. 3fai-ivein, May-wine, the infusion of an aromatic plant in 
light Moselle or Rhine wine, a popular drink in Germany during the month of 
May, the fiowering-time of the Waldmeister (Bot. Asperula odorata ; Eng. 
" Woodroof "). The same plant grows wild on Blue Hill, Milton, Mass., and 
is cultivated by the Germans of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 



30 LONGFELLOW. 

From which it steals the breath away, 

And which he loved so well of yore ; 
430 It is of him that I would think. 

You shall attend me, when I call, 

In the ancestral banquet-hall. 

Unseen companions, guests of air, 

You cannot wait on, will be there ; 
435 They taste not food, they drink not wine, 

But their soft eyes look into mine, 

And their lips speak to me, and all 

The vast and shadowy banquet-hall 

Is full of looks and words divine ! 
Leaning over the parapet. 

440 The day is done ; and slowly from the scene 
The stooping sun upgathers his spent shafts, 
And puts them back into his golden quiver ! 
Below me in the valley, deep and green 
As goblets are, from which in thirsty draughts 

446 We drink its wine, the swift and mantling river 
Flows on triumphant through these lovely regions, 
Etched with the shadows of its sombre margent, 
And soft, reflected clouds of gold and argent ! 
Yes, there it flows, forever, broad and still, 

450 As when the vanguard of the Roman legions 
First saw it from the top of yonder hill ! 
How beautiful it is ! Fresh fields of wheat, 
Vineyard, and town, and tower with fluttering flag, 

433. Unseen companions. Ci.'[5\\\2ixxdi''s Passage : " Take, O boatman, thrice 
thy fee," etc. ; quoted from the Edinburgh Eevieiv in Poets and Poetry of 
Europe, and Hyperion, Bk. iii. ch. 6. 

444. Goblets. The wine grown on the banks of tlie Rhine and its tributary 
rivers is drunk from colored glasses. 

451. Yonder hill. The ruin called Klopp, or Drusus' Castle, above Bingen, 
though not itself Roman, probably occupies the site of a fort built by Drusus 
in one of his German campaigns, 12-9 b. c. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 31 

The consecrated chaj^el on the crag, 
455 And the white hamlet gathered round its base, 
Like Mary sitting at her Saviour's feet, 
And looking up at his beloved face ! 
O friend ! best of friends ! *Thy absence more 
Than the impending night darkens the landscape o'er ! 



II. 

A FARM IN THE ODENWALD.* 

A garden ; morning ; Prince Henry seated with a book, t Elsie, 
at a distance, gathering Jioivers. 

Prixce Henry, reading. One morning, all alone, 
Out of his convent of gray stone. 
Into the forest older, darker, grayer, 
His lips moving as if in prayer, 
B His head sunken upon his breast 
As in a dream of rest, 
Walked the Monk Felix. All about 

455. Hamlet. Bingen was raised to great prosperity in the fourteenth cen- 
tury by certain Italian families of merchants who settled there. Its name is 
pleasantly recalled by the Hon. Mrs. Norton's poem of the soldier of Bingen 
dying in Algiers. 

* Odenwald. The forest of Odin, a picturesque district of Germany, in 
Hesse, between the Neckar and Main rivers. Through it runs the Bergstrasse, 
or Mountain Road, one of the most romantic highwaj-s of Europe. The forest 
is full of mythological associations ; here Siegfried, the hero of the Nibelungen 
saga, was slain, {v. Hedge's Hours ivith Germmi Classics, 40.) 

t Book. For remarks upon the scarcity and value of books in the Middle 
Ages, ?'. Robertson's Charles V., Introd. Note X. 

7. Monk Felix. This story was first told of a monk of the Netherlandish 
abbey of Afflighem, who meditated upon, or as some versions have it, pre- 
sumed to doubt the truth of the text II. Peter iii. 8, and found that three hun- 
dred years had passed as he listened in ecstasy to the singing of a bird. It is 
also told of monks in other abbeys, {v. Thorpe's Northern Mythology, iii. 
297.) It is similar to the legends of protracted sleep common to all countries 



32 LONGFELLOW. 

The broad, sweet sunshine lay without, 

Filling the summer air ; 
10 And within the woodlands as he trod, 

The dusk was like the Truce of God 

With w^orldly w^oe and care ; 

Under him lay the golden moss ; 

And above him the boughs of hoary trees 
16 Waved, and made the sign of the cross. 

And whispered their Benedicites ; 

And from the ground 

Rose an odor sweet and fragrant 

Of the wild-flowers and the vagrant 
20 Vines that wandered, 

Seeking the sunshine, round and round. 

These he heeded not, but pondered 
On the volume in his hand, 
Wherein amazed he read : 
25 " A thousand years in thy sight 

and times, from Epimenides and the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus to Rip Van 
Winkle, (v. Baring-Gould's Curious Myths, — The Seven Sleeiers ; also 
Cox's Aryan Mytholocjy^ Bk. ii. ch. 2.) 

11. TrxLce of God. The name applied to a cessation of private conflicts en- 
joined by the Church at ditferent times during the eleventh and twelfth cen- 
turies, by which laborers in the field, travellers, monks, pilgrims, women, and 
children were protected from attack during certain hours, or on certain feast 
or fast days, generally from Wednesday night of each week to the following 
Monday morning. 
22-28. In the first edition this passage read as follows : — 
" These he heeded not, but pondered 

On the volume in his hand, 

A volume of St. Augustine, 

Wherein he read of the unseen 

Splendor of God's great town 

In the unknown land, 

And with his eyes downcast," etc. 

The allusion is to the passage in St. Augustine's De Spirituet Animn, quoted 
in the note to p. 160. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 33 

Are but as yesterday when it is past, 
And as a watch in the nighl ! " 
And with his eyes downcast 
In humility he said : 
30 " I believe, O Lord, 

What is written in thy Word, 
But alas ! I do not understand ! " 

And lo ! he heard 

The sudden singing of a bird, 
35 A snow-white bird, that from a cloud 

Dropped down, 

And among the branches brown 

Sat singing 

So sweet, and clear, and loud, 
40 It seemed a thousand harp-strings ringing. 

And the Monk Felix closed his book, 

And long, long, 

With rapturous look, 

He listened to the song, 
45 And hardly breathed or stirred, 

Until he saw, as in a vision, 

The land Elysian, 

And in the heavenly city heard 

Angelic feet 
50 Fall on the golden flagging of the street. 

And he would fain 

47. Land Elysian. Homer ( Odyssey^ Bk. iv.) placed Elysium, or the Elysian 
Fields, on the west of the earth, near Ocean, the great encircling river, and 
described it as a happy land fanned by the breezes of Zephyrus. Hesiod and 
Pindar placed Elysium in the Happy Islands, whence arose the fabled Atlantis, 
west of the Pillars of Hercules. The Elysium of Virgil is part of the lower 
world, and the abode of the shades of the blessed ; accordingly a poetic name 
of Heaven, to which the description of the Apocaljrpse is here applied, {v. 
liev. xxi. 21.) 

3 



34 LONGFELLOW. 

Have caught the wondrous bird. 

But strove in vain ; 

For it flew away, away, 
85 Far over hill and dell, 

And instead of its sweet singing 

He heard the convent bell 

Suddenly in the silence ringing 

For the service of noonday. 
60 And he retraced 

His pathway homeward sadly and in haste. 

In the convent there was a change ! 

He looked for each well-known face, 

But the faces were new and strange ; 
65 New figures sat in the oaken stalls. 

New voices chanted in the choir ; 

Yet the place was the same place. 

The same dusky walls 

Of cold, gray stone, 
70 The same cloisters and belfry and spire. 

A stranger and alone 
Among that brotherhood 

59. Service ofiwonday. A prayer to the Virgin, beginning : Angelus domini 
nuntiarit Marine, followed by the Ave Maria^ recited at morning, noon, and 
night, at the ringing of a bell ; whence both the bell and the prayer are often 
called the Angelus, 

" Sweetly over the village the bell of the Angelus sounded. " 

Evangeline. 
Whoever heard the bell addressed himself at once to prayer, however he might 
be engaged. Thus Sir Thomas Browne says, in the Beligio Medici : " I could 
never hear the Ave Mary bell without an elevation." 

66. Choir. When tlie Roman basilicas were adapted to Christian worship, 
the choir was an enclosed space in the centre of the nave, but was afterward 
the eastern end of the church, in which were the stalls, and where the ser- 
vices took place. As these were musical, those taking part in them were sub- 
sequently called the choir. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 35 

The Monk Felix stood. 
" Forty years," said a Friar, 
75 " Have I been Prior 
Of this convent in the wood, 
But for that space 
Never have I beheld thy face ! " 

The heart of the Monk Felix fell : 
80 And he answered, with submissive tone, 

" This morning, after the hour of Prime, 

I left my cell. 

And wandered forth alone. 

Listening all the time 
85 To the melodious singing 

Of a beautiful white bird. 

Until I heard 

The bells of the convent ringing 

Noon from their noisy towers. 
* 90 It was as if I dreamed ; 

For what to me had seemed 

Moments only, had been hours ! " 

" Years ! " said a voice close by. 
It was an aged monk who spoke, 
95 From a bench of oak 

74. Friar. From frater, a brother, the name assumed in humility by the 
Mendicant Orders — Dominicans, Franciscans, and CarmeUtes — in distinction 
from the members of the older Benedictine and Augustirian orders, who were 
called monks. 

75. Prior. The superior of a priory, subordinate to the abbot, as the priory 
was originally dependent upon the abbey. In such cases the abbot had the 
right of appointment of the prior. Priories varied in size, from a mere cell 
containing a prior and two monks, to an establishment as large as an abbey. 
(v. Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages, 58.) 

81. Prime. The tliird canonical hour of the day, beginning with Matins at 
midnight, Lauds at three, and Prime at six o'clock in the morning. 



36 LONGFELLOW. • 

Fastened against the wall ; — 

He was the oldest monk of all. 

For a whole centuiy 

Had he been there, 
100 Servmg God in prayer, 

The meekest and humblest of his creatures. 

He remembered well the features 

Of Felix, and he said. 

Speaking distinct and slow : 
105 u Qj^g hundred years ago, 

When I was a novice in this place, 

There was here a monk, full of God's grace, 

Who bore the name 

Of Felix, and this man must be the same." 

^^° And straightway 

They brought forth to the light of day 

A volume old and brown, 

A huge tome, bound ' 

In brass and wild-boar's hide, 
116 Wherein were written down 

The names of all who had died 

In the convent, since it was edified. 

And there they found, 

Just as the old monk said, 
120 That on a certain day and date, 

One hundred years before, 

106. Novice. The youngest members of a religious house, passing through a 
probationary period, were called novices ; but a monk of another order, or of 
another house of the same order, was reckoned among the novices of any par- 
ticular establishment. Scions of noble houses were not infrequently entered 
at an early age as novices, either devoted to a religious life by their parents, 
or, with more worldly motives, thus provided with a calling and a mainte- 
nance. Poor children were also admitted to the monastic schools and trained 
to the religious life, often arriving at the highest dignities. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 37 

Had gone forth from the convent gate 

The Monk Fehx, and never more 

Had entered that sacred door. 
125 He had been counted among the dead I 

And they knew, at last, 

That, such had been the power 

Of that celestial and immortal song, 

A hundred years had passed, 
^^® And had not seemed so long 

As a single hour ! * 

Elsie comes in with flowers. 
Elsie. Here are flowers for you. 

But they are not all for you. 

Some of them are for the Virgin 
135 And for Saint Cecilia. 

Prince Henry. As thou standest there, 

Thou seemest to me like the angel 

That brought the immortal roses 

To Saint Cecilia's bridal chamber. 
140 Elsie. But these will fade. 

Prince Henry. Themselves will fade, 

But not their memory. 

And memory has the power 

To re-create them from the dust. 
145 They remind me, too, 

* For this legend v. also Dean Trench's The Monk and the Bird, — 
Poems, 24. 

135. St. Cecilia. With which to decorate the pictures of the Virgin and St. 
Ceciha in Elsie's chamber, {v. p. 40. ) For an account of the life and martyr- 
dom of St. Cecilia, patroness of music and "musicians, traditional inventor of 
the organ, v. Harper''s Magazine, Ixi. 809 ; Sacred and Legend. Art, ii. 583. 

139. Bridal Chamber. Her husband on his return from baptism heard in 
his wife's chamber the sound of enchanting music, and on entering beheld an 
angel who stood near St. Cecilia and held two crowns of red and white roses 
which he placed upon their heads. 



38 LONGFELLOW. 

Of martyred Dorothea, 

Who from celestial gardens sent 

Flowers as her witnesses 

To him who scoffed and doubted. 
160 Elsie. Do you know the story 

Of Christ and the Sultan's daughter ? 

That is the prettiest legend of them all. 
Prince Henry. Then tell it to me. 

But first come hither. 
156 Lay the flowers down beside me, 

And put both thy hands in mine. 

Now tell me the story. 

Elsie. Early in the morning 

The Sultan's daughter 
160 Walked in her father's garden, 

Gathering the bright flowers, 

All full of dew. 

Prince Henry. Just as thou hast been doing 

This morning, dearest Elsie. 
166 Elsie. And as she gathered them, 

She wondered more and more 

Who was the Master of the Flowers, 

And made them grow 

Out of the cold, dark earth. 
170 " In my heart," she said, 

" I love him ; and for him 

Would leave my father's palace. 

To labor in his garden." 

146. Dorothea. As Dorothea of Cappadocia, of noble birtli and great beauty, 
was led to martyrdom in the fourth century, a young lawyer jeered at her and 
asked her to send him fruit from the garden to which she said she was going ; 
and, as she prayed, an angel stood beside her holding a basket containing three 
roses and three apples, which Dorothea gave to the lawyer, who was himself 
converted and afterward suffered martyrdom. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 39 

Prince Henry, Dear, innocent child ! 
175 How sweetly thou recallest 

The long-forgotten legend, 

That in my early childhood 

My mother told me ! 

Upon my brain 
180 It reappears once more, 

As a birth-mark upon the forehead 

When a hand suddenly 

Is laid upon it, and removed ! 
Elsie. And at midnight, 
186 As she lay upon her bed, 

She heard a voice 

Call to her from the garden, 

And, looking forth from her window, 

She saw a beautiful youth 
190 Standing among the flowers. 

It was the Lord Jesus ; 

And she went down to him. 

And opened the door for him ; 

And he said to her, " O maiden ! 
195 Thou hast thought of me with love, 

And for thy sake 

Out of my Father's kingdom 

Have I come hither : 

I am the Master of the Flowers. 
200 My garden is in Paradise, 

And if thou wilt go with me. 

Thy bridal garland 

Shall be of bright red flowers." 

And then he took from his finger 
205 A golden ring. 

And asked the Sultan's daughter 



40 LONGFELLOW. 

If she would be his bride. 

And when she answered him with love, 

His wounds began to bleed, 
210 And she said to him, 

" O Love ! how red thy heart is, 

And thy hands are full of roses." 

" For thy sake," answered he, 

" For thy sake is my heart so red, 
215 For thee I bring these roses ; 

I gathered them at the cross 

Whereon I died for thee ! 

Come, for my Father calls. 

Thou art my elected bride ! " 
220 And the Sultan's daughter 

Followed him to his Father's garden. 

Prince Henry. Wouldst thou have done so, 

Elsie ? 
Elsie. Yes, very gladly. 

Prince Hexry. Then the Celestial Bride- 
groom 
225 Will come for thee also. 

Upon thy forehead he will place, 

Not his crown of thorns. 

But a crown of roses. 

In thy bridal chamber, 
230 Like Saint Cecilia, 

Thou shalt hear sweet music, 

And breathe the fragrance 

Of flowers immortal ! 

Go now and place these flowers 
236 Before her picture. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 41 



A ROOM IN THE FARM-HOUSE. 

Twilight. Ursula spinning. Gottlieb asleep in his chair. 
Ursula. Darker and darker ! Hardly a glim- 
mer 
Of light comes in at the window-pane ; 
Or is it my eyes are growing dimmer ? 
I cannot disentangle this skein, 
240 Nor wind it rightly upon the reel. 
Elsie ! 

Gottlieb, starting. The stopping of thy wheel 
Has wakened me out of a pleasant dream. 
I thought I was sitting beside a stream, 
245 And heard the grinding of a mill, 
When suddenly the wheels stood still, 
And a voice cried " Elsie " in my ear ! 
It startled me, it seemed so near. 

Ursula. I was calling her : I want a light. 
250 I cannot see to spin my flax. 

Bring the lamp, Elsie. Dost thou hear ? 
Elsie, within. In a moment ! 
Gottlieb. Where are Bertha and Max ? 

Ursula. They are sitting with Elsie at the door. 
255 She is telling them stories of the wood, 
And the Wolf, and little Red Ridinghood. 
Gottlieb. And where is the Prince ? 

256. Red Ridinghood. In the Vedas the dawn is represented as a young 
maiden carrying messages, bringing food, and travelling to join the day, but 
intercepted and swallowed up by the wolf or night. She does not die, how- 
ever, but is rescued from the mouth of the wolf, just as Red Cap, the evening 
twilight, with her cloak of scarlet sunset, is cut from the stomach of the wolf, 
to live again as the dawn. For the origin of Aryan folk-lore v. Cox's Aryan 
Mythology, passim, and LitteWs Living Age, xciv. 730 ; also John Fiske's 
Myths and Myth-Makers, 77, note. 



42 LONGFELLOW. 

Ursula. In his room overhead ; 

I heard him walking across the floor, 
260 As he always does, with a heavy tread. 

Elsie comes in with a lamp. Max and Bertha follow her ; and 
they all sing the Evening Song on the lighting of the lamps. 

EVENING SONG.* 

O gladsome light 
Of the Father Immortal, 
And of the celestial 
Sacred and blessed 
266 Jesus, our Saviour! 

Now to the sunset 
Again hast thou brought us ; 
And, seeing the evening 
Twilight, we bless thee, 
270 Praise thee, adore thee ! 

Father omnipotent ! 
Son, the Life-giver! 
Spirit, the Comforter ! 
Worthy at all times 
276 Of worship and wonder ! 



* Modelled upon the choral songs which originated in the reformed church 
of Germany, to introduce a popular element into the worship of the church 
and home. Many of the tunes were adapted from old church music, while 
others came from secular sources. Choral songs had played a great part 
among the early Germans on all the important occasions of private and public 
life, in receiving the bride and in burjdng the hero, in marching to battle, and 
in the procession of pagan sacrifices. They comprised all the elements of lyric 
and dramatic poetry. Such an adaptation to modem religious purposes was 
therefore natural. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 43 

Prince Henry, at the door. Amen ! 
Ursula. Who was it said Amen ? 

Elsie. It was the Prince : he stood at the 
door, 
And listened a moment, as we chanted 
280 The evening song. He is gone again. 
I have often seen him there before. 
Ursula. Poor Prince. 

Gottlieb. I thought the house was haunted ! 
Poor Prince, alas ! and yet as mild 
285 And patient as the gentlest child ! 

Max. I love him because he is so good, 
And makes me such fine bows and arrows, 
To shoot at the robins and the sparrows, 
And the red squirrels in the wood ! 
290 Bertha. I love him, too ! 

Gottlieb. Ah, yes ! we all 

Love him, from the bottom of our hearts ; 
He gave us the farm, the house, and the grange, 
He gave us the horses and the carts, 
29 B And the great oxen in the stall. 
The vineyard, and the forest range ! 
We have nothing to give him but our love ! 

Bertha. Did he give us the beautiful stork 
above 
On the chimney-top, with its large, round nest ? 
300 Gottlieb. No, not the stork ; by God in heaven. 
As a blessing, the dear white stork was given, 

301 . Storks. Swedish legend says that the stork derived its name and sacred 
character from flying around the cross and crying to the Saviour, Siyrka, Styr- 
ka! " Strengthen, strengthen ! " In Holland and on the Rhine it is considered 
a good omen to a dwelling and its inmates if a stork select it for an habitation, 
because the presence of this bird is supposed to render the building safe from 
fire. To kill a stork in these countries is hardly less than a crime. 



44 LONGFELLOW. 

But the Prince has given us all the rest. 
God bless him, and make him well again. 

Elsie. Would I could do something for his sake, 
305 Something to cure his sorrow and pain ! 

Gottlieb. That no one can ; neither thou nor I, 
Nor any one else. 

Elsie. And must he die ? 

Ursula. Yes ; if the dear God does not take 
310 Pity upon him, in his distress, 
And work a miracle ! 

Gottlieb. Or unless 

Some maiden, of her own accord, 
Offers her life for that of her lord, 
315 And is willing to die in his stead. 

Elsie, I will ! 

Ursula. Prithee, thou foolish child, be still ! 
Thou shouldst not say what thou dost not mean ! 
Elsie. I mean it truly ! 
320 Max. father ! this morning, 

Down by the mill, in the ravine, 
Hans killed a wolf, the very same 
That in the night to the sheej)fold came. 
And ate up my lamb, that was left outside. 
325 Gottlieb. I am glad he is dead. It will be a 
warnmg 
To the wolves in the forest, far and wide. 
Max. And I am going to have his hide ! 
Bertha. I wonder if this is the wolf that ate 
Little Red Ridinghood ! 
330 Ursula. O, no ! 

That wolf was killed a long while ago. 
Come, children, it is growing late. 

Max. Ah, how I wish I were a man. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 45 

As stout as Hans is, and as strong ! 
335 I would do nothing else, the whole day long, 
But just kill wolves. 

Gottlieb. Then go to bed, 

And grow as fast as a little boy can. 
Bertha is half asleep already. 
340 See how she nods her heavy head, 
And her sleepy feet are so unsteady 
She will hardly be able to creep up stairs. 

Ursula. Good night, my children. Here 's the 
light. 
And do not forget to say your prayers 
346 Before you sleep. 

Gottlieb. Good night ! 

Max and Bertha. Good night ! 

They go out loith Elsie. 
Ursula, spinni7ig. She is a strange and way- 
ward child, 
That Elsie of ours. She looks so old, 
350 And thoughts and fancies weird and wild 
Seem of late to have taken hold 
Of her heart that was once so docile and mild ! 
Gottlieb. She is like all girls. 
Ursula. Ah no, forsooth ! 

355 Unlike all I have ever seen. 

For she has visions and strange dreams. 
And in all her words and ways, she seems 
Much older than she is in truth. 
Who would think her but fifteen ? 
360 And there has been of late such a change ! 
My heart is heavy with fear and doubt 
That she may not live till the year is out. 
She is so strange, — so strange, — so strange ! 

359. Fifteen. In " Poor Henry," Elsie is but eight years of age. 



46 LONGFELLO W. 

Gottlieb. I am not troubled with any such fear ; 
365 She will live and thrive for many a year. 

ELSIE'S CHAMBER. 

Night. Elsie praying. 

Elsie. My Redeemer and my Lord, 
I beseech thee, I entreat thee, 
Guide me in each act and word, 
That hereafter I may meet thee, 
370 Watching, waiting, hoping, yearning. 

With my lamp well trimmed and burning ! 

Interceding 
With these bleeding 
Wounds upon thy hands and side, 
375 For all who have lived and erred 
Thou hast suffered, thou hast died. 
Scourged, and mocked, and crucified, 
And in the grave hast thou been buried ! 

If my feeble prayer can reach thee, 
380 O my Saviour, I beseech thee. 

Even as thou hast died for me. 

More sincerely 

Let me follow where thou leadest. 

Let me, bleeding as thou bleedest, 
385 Die, if dying I may give 

Life to one who asks to live. 

And more nearly. 

Dying thus, resemble thee ! 

366. Elsie'^s prayer. " I have a heroine as sweet as Imogen, could I but 
paint her so." (Longfellow's Journal, Nov. 27, 1839; Samuel Longfellow's 
Life of Longfellow, i. 334.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 47 

THE CHAMBER OF GOTTLIEB AND URSULA. 

Midnight. Elsie standing by their bedside, weeping. 
Gottlieb. The wind is roaring ; the rushing rain 
330 Is loud upon roof and window-pane, 
As if the Wild Huntsman of Rodenstein, 
Boding evil to me and mine, 
Were abroad to-night with his ghostly train ! 
In the brief lulls of the tempest wild, 
395 The dogs howl in the yard ; and hark ! 
Some one is sobbing in the dark, 
Here in the chamber ! 
Elsie. It is I. 

Ursula. Elsie ! what ails thee, my poor child ? 
400 Elsie. I am disturbed and much distressed, 
In thinking our dear Prince must die ; 
I cannot close mine eyes, nor rest. 
Gottlieb. What wouldst thou ? In the Power 
Divine 

391. The Wild Huntsman. In a secluded district of the Odenwald stand 
the ruins of the castle of Schnellert, where the Wild Huntsman was wont to 
annoimce the approach of war by traversing the air with his noisy cavalcade to 
the neighboring castle of Rodenstein. The people of this district asserted 
that they were thus forewarned of the battles of Leipsic and Waterloo. The 
legend of the Wild Huntsman is common to many countries of Europe : in 
England he is Heme the Hunter, who is described in The Merry Wives of 
Windsor, iv. 1, and in The Ingoldsby Legends, — The Smuggler's Leap ; he ia 
Peepmg Tom of Coventry as well as the Pied Piper of Hamelin ; in France 
he hunts the forest of Fontainebleau as le grand veneur. Under all these 
disguises are discerned the features of Odin, the northern god of the air, 
wind, and storms, who, as conductor of the dead, hunts their spirits along the 
sky. {v. Keary's Outlines of Primitive Belief, 293, 494 ; also Scott's trans- 
lation of Burger's Wild Huntsman.) The Christian Gottlieb speaks of the 
pagan Wild Huntsman as of an actual being ; " thus for centuries in many 
districts of Germany," says Freytag {Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangen- 
heit, i. ch. 4), " a mixed faith existed, in which Christ, St. Peter and other 
saints, were invoked side by side with Wodan (Odin) and Donar." 



48 LONGFELLOW. 

His healing lies, not in our own ; 
406 It is in the hand of God alone. 

Elsie. Nay, he has put it into mine, 

And into my heart ! 
Gottlieb. Thy words are wild ! 

Ursula. What dost thou mean ? my cliild ! my 
child! 
410 Elsie. That for our dear Prince Henry's sake 

I wiU myself the offering make, 

And give my life to purchase his. 
Ursula. Am I still dreaming, or awake ? 

Thou speakest carelessly of death, 
415 And yet thou knowest not what it is. 

Elsie. 'T is the cessation of our breath. 

Silent and motionless we lie ; 

And no one knoweth more than this. 

I saw our little Gertrude die ; 
420 She left off breathing, and no more 

I smoothed the pillow beneath her head. 

She was more beautiful than before. 

Like violets faded were her eyes ; 

By this we knew that she was dead. 
425 Through the open window looked the skies 

Into the chamber where she lay, 

And the wind was like the sound of wings, 

As if angels came to bear her away. 

Ah ! when I saw and felt these things, 
430 I found it difficult to stay ; 

I longed to die, as she had died. 

And go forth with her, side by side. 

The Saints are dead, the Martyrs dead, 

And Mary, and our Lord ; and I 
435 "Would follow in humility 

The way by them illumined ! 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 49 

Ursula. My child ! my child ! thou must not die ! 
Elsie. Why should I live ? Do I not know 

The life of woman is full of woe ? 
440 Toiling on and on and on, 

With breaking heart, and tearful eyes, 

And silent lips, and in the soul 

The secret longings that arise, 

Which this world never satisfies ! 
445 Some more, some less, but of the whole 

Not one quite happy, no, not one ! 
Ursula. It is the malediction of Eve ! 
Elsie. In place of it, let me receive 

The benediction of Mary, then. 
450 Gottlieb. Ah, woe is me ! Ah, woe is me ! 

Most wretched am I among men ! 
Ursula. Alas ! that I should live to see 

Thy death, beloved, and to stand 

Above thy grave ! Ah, woe the day ! 
465 Elsie. Thou wilt not see it. I shall lie 

Beneath the flowers of another land, 

For at Salerno, far away 

Over the mountains, over the sea, 

It is appointed me to die ! 
460 And it will seem no more to thee 

Than if at the village on market-day 

I should a little longer stay 

Than I am wont. 
Ursula. Even as thou sayest ! 

465 And how my heart beats, when thou stayest ! 

I cannot rest until my sight 

Is satisfied with seeing thee. 

What, then, if thou wert dead ? 

447. The malediction of Eve. {v. Genesis iii. 16, and St. Luke i. 28.) 
4 



50 LONGFELLOW. 

Gottlieb. Ah me ! 

470 Of our old eyes thou art the light ! 
The joy of our old hearts art thou ! 
And wilt thou die ? 
Ursula. Not now ! not now ! 

Elsie. Christ died for me, and shall not I 
475 Be willing for my Prince to die ? 

You both are silent ; you cannot speak. 
This said I at our Saviour's feast 
After confession, to the priest, 
And even he made no reply. 
480 Does he not warn us all to seek 
The happier, better land on high. 
Where flowers immortal never wither ; 
And could he forbid me to go thither ? 
Gottlieb. In God's own time, my heart's delight ! 
486 When he shall call thee, not before ! 

Elsie. I heard him call. When Christ ascended 
Triumphantly, from star to star, 
He left the gates of heaven ajar. 
I had a vision in the night, 
490 And saw him standing at the door 

Of his Father's mansion, vast and splendid, 
And beckoning to me from afar. 
I cannot stay ! 
Gottlieb. She speaks almost 
496 As if it were the Holy Ghost 

Spake through her lips, and in her stead ! 
What if this were of God ? 

Ursula. Ah, then 

Gainsay it dare we not. 

475. For my Prince to die. Not merely gratitude for favors bestowed upon 
her family, but a sense of vassalage, prompts Elsie to offer her life for her 
lord's. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 51 

500 Gottlieb. Amen ! 

Elsie ! the words that thou hast said 

Are strange and new for us to hear, 

And fill our hearts with doubt and fear. 

Whether it be a dark temptation 
B05 Of the Evil One, or God's inspiration, 

We in our blindness cannot say. 

We must think upon it, and pray ; 

For evil and good it both resembles. 

If it be of God, his will be done ! 
510 May he guard us from the Evil One ! 

How hot thy hand is ! how it trembles ! 

Go to thy bed, and try to sleep. 

Ursula. Kiss me. Good night ; and do not 
weep ! 

Elsie goes out. 

Ah, what an awful thing is this ! 
^^^ I almost shuddered at her kiss. 

As if a ghost had touched my cheek, 

I am so childish and so weak I 

As soon as I see the earliest gray 

Of morning glimmer in the east, 
520 I will go over to the priest, 

And hear what the good man has to say ! 

A VILLAGE CHURCH. 

A woman kneeling at the confessional.* 

The Parish Priest, from within. Go, sin no 
more ! Thy penance o'er, 
A new and better life begin ! 

* Auricular confession, or the confession of sin at the ear of the priest, 
such statements being confidential, was practised in the Church as early as 
the fourth century, and was enjoined by the Council of the Lateran, 1215. 



52 LONGFELLOW. 

God maketh thee forever free 
B25 From the dominion of thy sin ! 
Go, sin no more ! He will restore 
The peace that filled thy heart before, 
And pardon thine iniquity I 

The woman goes out. The Priest comes forth, and walks slowly up 
and down the church. 

blessed Lord ! how much I need 
B30 Thy light to guide me on my way ! 

So many hands, that, without heed. 
Still touch thy wounds, and make them bleed ! 
So many feet, that, day by day, 
Still wander from thy fold astray ! 
635 Unless thou fill me with thy light, 

1 cannot lead thy flock aright ; 
Nor, without thy support, can bear 
The burden of so great a care. 
But am myself a castaway ! 

A pause. 

640 The day is drawing to its close ; 

And what good deeds, since first it rose, 

Have I presented. Lord, to thee. 

As offerings of my ministry ? 

What wrong repressed, what right maintained, 
645 What struggle passed, what victory gained, 

What good attempted and attained ? 

Feeble, at best, is my endeavor ! 

I see, but cannot reach, the height 

That lies forever in the light. 

The act of confession precedes absolution and the administration of the Eu- 
charist, {r. p. 58. ) The confessional is a cabinet within which sits the priest 
while the penitent kneels outside at a latticed window. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 53 

550 And yet forever and forever, 

When seeming just within my grasp, 

I feel my feeble hands unclasp, 

And sink discouraged into night ! 

For thine own purpose, thou hast sent 
555 The strife and the discouragement ! 
A pause. 

Why stayest thou. Prince of Hoheneck ? 

Why keep me pacing to and fro 

Amid these aisles of sacred gloom, 

Counting my footstejDS as I go, 
560 And marking with each step a tomb ? 

Why should the world for thee make room, 

And wait thy leisure and thy beck ? 

Thou comest in the hope to hear 

Some word of comfort and of cheer. 
565 What can I say ? I cannot give 

The counsel to do this and live ; 

But rather, firmly to deny 

The tempter, though his power be strong, 

And, inaccessible to wrong, 
670 Still like a martyr live and die ! 
A pause. 

The evening air grows dusk and brown ; 

I must go forth into the town, 

To visit beds of pain and death, 

Of restless limbs, and quivering breath, 
575 And sorrowing hearts, and patient eyes 

That see, through tears, the sun go down, 

But never more shall see it rise. 

The poor in body and estate, 

The sick and the disconsolate, 
880 Must not on man's convenience wait. 
Goes out. 



64 LONGFELLOW. 

Enter Lucifer, as a Priest* 
Lucifer, with a genuflection, mocking. This is 
the Black Pater-noster. 

God was my foster, 

He fostered me 

Under the book of the Palm-tree ! 
685 St. Michael was my dame. 

He was born at Bethlehem, 

He was made of flesh and blood. 

God send me my right food. 

My right food, and shelter too, 
B90 That I may to yon kirk go. 

To read upon yon sweet book 

Which the mighty God of heaven shook. 

Open, open, hell's gates ! 

Shut, shut, heaven's gates ! 
B9B AH the devils in the air 

The stronger be, that hear the Black Prayer ! 
Looking round the church. 

What a darksome and dismal place ! 

I wonder that any man has the face 

To call such a hole the House of the Lord, 
600 And the Gate of Heaven, — yet such is the word. 

Ceiling, and walls, and windows old, 

Covered with cobwebs, blackened with mould ; 

Dust on the pulpit, dust on the stairs, 

* It was au old belief that devils could at any moment assume whatever 
form they pleased that would most conduce to the success of the enterprise 
they might have in hand ; hence the charge of being a devil, so commonly 
brought against innocent persons. Shakespeare alludes to this popular belief 
in /. Henry IV. ii. 2; Merchant of Venice, in. 1. The devil was often 
thought in the Middle Ages to enter the pulpit as a priest, and harangue 
the congregation. 

581. Black Pater-noster. The Devil's Prayer as distinguished from the 
Lord's Prayer, — a jargon of sacred and profane allusions. 

600. Gate of Heaven, (v. Gewes/sxxviii. 17.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 55 

Dust on the benches, and stalls, and chairs ! 
605 The pulpit, from which such ponderous sermons 

Have fallen down on the brains of the Germans, 

With about as much real edification 

As if a great Bible, bound in lead. 

Had fallen, and struck them on the head ; 
610 And I ought to remember that sensation! 

Here stands the holy-water stoup ! 

Holy-water it may be to many, 

But to me, the veriest Liquor Gehennas I 

It smells like a filthy fast-day soup ! 
615 Near it stands the box for the poor ; 

With its iron padlock, safe and sure- 

I and the priest of the parish know 

Whither all these charities go ; 

Therefore, to keep up the institution, 
620 I will add my little contribution ! 
He puts in money. 

Underneath this mouldering tomb, 

With statue of stone, and scutcheon of brass, 

611. Holy-water stoup. It stood originally outside the church, following the 
ancient custom of washing the hands and face before entering the temple. 
Accordingly, baptismal fonts were first erected in separate buildings called 
baptisteries. The holy-water stoup was later placed within the church against 
the wall near the door, or fixed to a pillar, to be used by those entering or 
leaving. 

613. Gehennce. Gehenna is the Hebrew ge-Hinnom, the valley of Hinnom, 
near Jerusalem, the early place of human sacrifice, hence a place of abomina- 
tion and a receptacle of the refuse of the city, perpetual fire being kept up 
to prevent pestilence. The name excited horror, and was, therefore, after- 
ward applied to the place of future punishment. 

615. Poor-box. The temple at Jerusalem contained a Chamber of Silence, 
wherem was secretly deposited whatever generosity ofEered, from which the 
deserving poor were maintained with equal secrecy. Tliis is the probable 
origin of charity-boxes in churches. 

622. Scutcheon of b7-ass. It was the custom, as far back as the thirteenth 
century, to ornament tlie tombs of eminent persons with figures and inscrip- 
tions on plates of brass, {v. Love''s Labor '« Lost, i. 1, and Mtick Ado About 
Nothing, iv. 1, and v. 1.) 



56 LONGFELLOW. 

Slumbers a great lord of the village. 

All his life was riot and pillage, 
625 But at lengthy to escape the threatened doom 

Of the everlasting, penal fire. 

He died in the dress of a mendicant friar, 

And bartered his wealth for a daily mass. 

But all that afterward came to pass, 
630 And whether he finds it dull or pleasant, 

Is kept a secret for the present, 

At his own particular desire. 

And here, in a corner of the wall, 

Shadowy, silent, apart from all, 
635 With its awful portal open wide. 

And its latticed windows on either side. 

And its step well worn by the bended knees 

Of one or two pious centuries. 

Stands the village confessional ! 
640 Within it, as an honored guest, 

I will sit me down awhile and rest . 

Seats himself in the confessional. 

Here sits the priest ; and faint and low, 

Like the sighing of an evening breeze. 

Conies through these painted lattices 

G27. Mendicant Friar. Several religions orders began alms-begging in the 
thirteentli century, but they were reduced to four by Gregory X. , — the Do- 
minicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, and Augusthiian Hermits. It was not un- 
common for nobles of former lawless character to end their lives in religious 
houses, as at Hirschau. 

628. Daily Mass. For a mass to be said daily for the repose of his soul. 
Nearly every will of the period described in this poem provided for the saying 
of such masses for the soul of the testator, sometimes by ordering the execu- 
tors to have a number of masses, varying from ten to ten thousand, said 
speedily ; sometimes by directing that a priest shall be engaged to say mass 
for a certain time, varying from thirty days to forty or fifty years. These 
masses formed provision for the support of a large number of itinerant and 
unattached priests. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 67 

645 The ceaseless sound of human woe ; 

Here, while her bosom aches and throbs 

With deep and agonizing sobs, 

That half are passion, half contrition. 

The luckless daughter of perdition 
650 Slowly confesses her secret shame ! 

The time, the place, the lover's name ! 

Here the grim murderer, with a groan, 

From his bruised conscience rolls the stone. 

Thinking that thus he can atone 
655 For ravages of sword and flame I 

Indeed, 1 marvel, and marvel greatly. 

How a priest can sit here so sedately, 

Reading, the whole year out and in. 

Naught but the catalogue of sin, 
660 And still keep any faith whatever 

In human virtue ! Never ! never ! 

I cannot repeat a thousandth part 

Of the horrors and crimes and sins and woes 

That arise, when with palpitating throes 

665 The graveyard in the human heart 

Gives up its dead, at the voice of the priest. 

As if he were an archangel, at least. 

It makes a peculiar atmosphere. 

This odor of earthly passions and crimes, 

670 Such as I like to breathe, at times. 
And such as often brings me here 

667. Archangel. The Schoolmen, following Dionysiiis the Areopagite, di- 
vided the angelic host into three hierarchies of three choirs each, viz. : — 

Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, 

Dominions, Virtues, Powers, 

Princedoms, Archangels, Angels. 
So the poet properly speaks of " an archangel, at least.'''' 



58 LONGFELLOW. 

In tlie hottest and most pestilential season. 

To-day, I come for another reason ; 

To foster and ripen an evil thought 
675 In a heart that is almost to madness wrought, 

And to make a murderer out of a prince, 

A sleight of hand I learned long since ! 

He comes. In the twilight he will not see 

The difference between liis priest and me ! 
680 In the same net was the mother caught ! 

Prince Henry, entering and kneeling at the con- 
fessional. Remorseful, penitent, and lowly, 
I come to crave, O Father holy, 
Thy benediction on my head. 
Lucifer. The benediction shall be said 
686 After confession, not before ! 

'T is a God-speed to the parting guest, 
Who stands already at the door. 
Sandalled with holiness, and dressed 
In garments pure from earthly stain. 
690 Meanwhile, hast thou searched well thy breast ? 
Does the same madness fill thy brain ? 
Or have thy passion and unrest 
Vanished forever from thy mind ? 
Prince Henry. By the same madness still made 
blind, 
695 By the same passion still possessed, 
I come again to the house of prayer, 
A man afflicted and distressed ! 
As in a cloudy atmosphere, 
Through unseen sluices of the air, 

686. God-speed. Of. " Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest." 

Pope's Odyssey, xv. 84. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 59 

700 A sudden and impetuous wind 

Strikes the great forest white with fear, 
And every branch, and bough, and spray- 
Points all its quivering leaves one way, 
And meadows of grass, and fields of grain, 

705 And the clouds above, and the slanting rain, 
And smoke from chimneys of the town, 
Yield themselves to it, and bow down. 
So does this dreadful purpose press 
Onward, with irresistible stress, 

710 And all my thouglits and faculties, 
Struck level by the strength of this. 
From their true inclination turn. 
And all stream forward to Salern ! 

Lucifer. Alas ! we are but eddies of dust, 

715 Uplifted by the blast, and whirled 
Along the highway of the world 
A moment only, then to fall 
Back to a common level all. 
At the subsiding of the gust ! 

720 Prixce Henry. O holy Father ! pardon in me 
The oscillation of a mind 
Unsteadfast, and that cannot find 
Its centre of rest and harmony ! 
For evermore before mine eyes 

725 This ghastly phantom flits and flies, 
And as a madman through a crowd, 
With frantic gestures and wild cries, 

714. Eddies of dust. According to Mussulman tradition, derived from the 
Talmud, Adam was created about three o'clock Friday afternoon, the four 
archangels, Gabriel, Michael, Israfiel, and Asrael, being required to bring dust 
from the four quarters of the earth, that tlierefrom God might fashion man. 
The rabbis asserted that the earth refused any of her substance, and that 
only Asrael, the Angel of Death, obeyed the divine command, from which is 
derived the power of death over the human race. 



60 LONGFELLO W. 

It hurries onward, and aloud 

Repeats its awful prophecies! 
730 Weakness is wretchedness ! To be strong 

Is to be hapj)y ! 1 am weak, 

And cannot find the good I seek, 

Because I feel and fear the wrong ! 

Lucifer. Be not alarmed ! The Church is kind, 
735 And in her mercy and her meekness 

She meets half-way her children's weakness, 

Writes their transgressions in the dust ! 

Though in the Decalogue we find 

The mandate written*, " Thou shalt not kill ! " 
740 Yet there are cases when we must. 

In war, for instance, or from scathe 

To guard and keep the one true Faith ! 

We must look at the Decalogue in the light 

Of an ancient statute, that was meant 
746 For a mild and general application, 

To be understood with the reservation, 

That, in certain instances, the Right 

Must yield to the Expedient ! 

Thou art a Prince. If thou shouldst die, 
750 What hearts and hopes would jDrostrate lie ! 

What noble deeds, what fair renown, 

Into the grave with thee go down ! 

What acts of valor and courtesy 

730. Wretchedness. Cf. "To be weak is miserable." Par. Lost, i. 157. 

734. The Church is kind. Thus tlie Church distinguishes between venial 
and mortal sins, the former being " a slight offence against the laws of God in 
matters of less importance, or in matters of great importance an offence com- 
mitted without sufficient reflection or full consent of the will ; " a mortal sin, 
on the contrary, being " a grievous offence against the law of God, bringing 
everlasting death." 

748. Expedient. It was said of Edmund Burke by Goldsmith {Retaliation) 
that he was " too fond of the right to pursue the expedient." 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 61 

Remain undone, and die with thee ! 
766 Thou art the last of all thy race I 

With thee a noble name expires, 

And vanishes from the earth's face 

The glorious memory of thy sires ! 

She is a peasant. In her veins 
760 Flows common and plebeian blood ; 

It is such as daily and hourly stains 

The dust and the turf of battle plains, 

By vassals shed, in a crimson flood, 

Without reserve, and without reward, 
766 At the slightest summons of their lord ! 

But thine is precious ; the fore-appointed 

Blood of kings, of God's anointed ! 

Moreover, what has the world in store 

For one like her, but tears and toil ? 
770 Daughter of sorrow, serf of the soil, 

A peasant's child and a peasant's wife. 

And her soul within her sick and sore 

With the roughness and barrenness of life ! 

I marvel not at the heart's recoil 
775 From a fate like this, in one so tender, 

Nor at its eagerness to surrender 

All the wi'etchedness, want, and woe 

That await it in this world below. 

For the unutterable splendor 
780 Of the world of rest beyond the skies. 

So the Church sanctions the sacrifice : 

Therefore inhale this healing balm, 

And breathe this fresh life into thine ; 

770. Serf of the soil. The villein or serf was obliged to remain upon his 
lord's estate, and could be reclaimed at law if he ventured to stray, [v. Hal- 
lam's 3riddle Ages, ch. ii. part 2.) In "Poor Henry," as here, Elsie's father 
is a tenant of the prince, a condition supei'ior to serfdom. 



62 LONGFELLO W. 

Accept the comfort and the calm 
786 She ofEers, as a gift divine ; 

Let her fall down and anoint thy feet 
With the ointment costly and most sweet 
Of her young blood, and thou shalt live. 

Prince Henry. And will the righteous Heaven 
forgive ? 
790 No action, whether foul or fair, 

Is ever done, but it leaves somewhere 
A record, written by fingers ghostly, 
As a blessing or a curse, and mostly 
In the greater weakness or greater strength 
796 Of the acts which follow it, till at length 
The wrongs of ages are redressed. 
And the justice of God made manifest ! 

Lucifer. In ancient records it is stated 
That, whenever an evil deed is done, 
800 Another devil is created 

To scourge and torment the offending one ! 
But evil is only good perverted. 
And Lucifer, the Bearer of Light, 
But an angel fallen and deserted, 
806 Thrust from his Father's house with a curse 
Into the black and endless night. 

Prince Henry. If justice rules the universe, 
From the good actions of good men 
Angels of light should be begotten, 
810 And thus the balance restored again. 

Lucifer. Yes ; if the world were not so rotten, 
And so given over to the Devil ! 

Prince Henry. But this deed, is it good or 
evil? 
Have I thine absolution free 
816 To do it, and without restriction ? 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 63 

Lucifer. Ay ; and from whatsoever sin 
Lieth around it and within, 
From all crimes in which it may involve thee, 
I now release thee and absolve thee ! 
820 Prince Henry. Give me thy holy benediction. 
Lucifer, stretching forth his hand and Tnutter- 
ing, Maledictione perpetua 
Maledicat vos 
Pater eternus ! 
The Angel, ivith the molian harp. Take heed ! 
take heed ! 
825 Noble art thou in thy birth. 

By the good and the great of earth 
Hast thou been taught ! 
Be noble in every thought 
And in every deed ! 
830 Let not the illusion of thy senses 
Betray thee to deadly offences. 
Be strong ! be good ! be pure ! 
The right only shall endure, 
All things else are but false pretences. 
835 I entreat thee, I implore. 
Listen no more 

To the suggestions of an evil spirit. 
That even now is there, 
Making the foul seem fair, 
840 And selfishness itself a virtue and a merit ! 

A ROOM IN THE FARM-HOUSE. 

Gottlieb. It is decided ! For many days, 
And nights as many, we have had 
A nameless terror in our breast, 

839. Foul seem fair. Cf. " Fair is foul, and foul is fair." Macbeth, i. 1. 



64 LONGFELLOW. 

Making us timid, and afraid 
845 Of God, and his mysterious ways ! 
We have been sorrowful and sad ; 
Much have we suffered, much have j^rayed 
That he would lead us as is best, 
And show us what his will required. 
850 It is decided ; and we give 

Our child, O Prince, that you may live ! 

Ursula. It is of God. He has inspired 
This purpose in her ; and through pain, 
Out of a world of sin and woe, 
855 He takes her to himself again. 

The niother's heart resists no longer ; 
With the Angel of the Lord in vain 
It wrestled, for he was the stronger. 

Gottlieb. As Abraham offered long ago 
860 His son unto the Lord, and even 
The Everlasting Father in heaven 
Gave his, as a lamb unto the slaughter, 
So do I offer up my daughter I 

Ursula hides her face. 
Elsie. My life is little, 
865 Only a cup of water, 
But pure and limpid. 
Take it, O my Prince ! 
Let it refresh you, 
Let it restore you. 
870 It is given willingly. 
It is given freely ; 
May God bless the gift ! 

Prixce Henry. And the giver ! 
Gottlieb. Amen ! 

845. Mysterious ways. Cf. " God moves in a mysterious way. " Cowper. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. Qb 

876 Prince Henry. I accept it ! 

Gottlieb. Where are the children ? 
Ursula. They are ah^eady asleep. 
Gottlieb. What if they were dead ? 

IN THE GARDEN. 

Elsie. I have one thing to ask of you. 
880 Prince Henry. W^hat is it ? 

It is already granted. 

Elsie. Promise me, 

When we are gone from here, and on our way 
Are journeying to Salerno, you will not, 
886 By word or deed, endeavor to dissuade me 
And turn me from my purpose ; but remember 
That as a pilgi-im to the Holy City 
Walks unmolested, and with thoughts of pardon 
Occupied wholly, so would I approach 
890 The gates of Heaven, in this great jubilee. 
With my petition, putting off from me 
All thoughts of earth, as shoes from off my feet. 
Promise me this. 

887. Pilgrim. Pilgrimages began with that of the Empress Helena, mother 
of Constantine the Great, to Jerusalem, \. d. 326. They became so common 
from the close of the tenth century that itmeraries were made for pilgrims, 
and inns (hospices) were erected for their entertainment €7i route. Returning 
they were called " Palmers," because they bore a sprig of palm in token of 
having performed their pilgrJhiage. Their report of the condition of the Holy 
Places at Jerusalem called forth the crusades. The monks obtained the right 
of asylum, of justice, and of safe conduct, in favor of pilgrims and of travellers 
accompanied by a monk. 

890. Jubilee. Elsie compares her journey to the Church jubilees instituted, 
in imitation of the Hebrew jubilee, by Boniface VIII., 1300, when plenary 
indulgence was promised to all who visited the churches of Sts. Peter and 
Paul in Rome. As many as 200.000 pilgrims were assembled at Rome during 
one month of this jubilee, and so lucrative did these festivals become, that 
the interval between them was gradually reduced from one hundred to twen- 
ty-five years. 

892. Shoes. As the pilgrims removed their travel-stained .sandals on ap- 



66 LONGFELLOW, 

Prince Hexry. Thy words fall from thy lips 
895 Like roses from the lips of Angelo : and angels 
Might stoop to pick them up ! 
Elsie. Will you not promise ? 

Prince Henry. If ever we depart upon this 
journey, 
So long to one or both of us, I promise. 
900 Elsie. Shall we not go, then ? Have you lifted 
me 
Into the air, only to hurl me back 
Wounded upon the ground ? and offered me 
The waters of eternal life, to bid me 
Di'ink the polluted puddles of this world ? 
905 Prince Henry. O Elsie ! what a lesson thou 
dost teach me ! 
The life which is, and that which is to come, 
Suspended hang in such nice equipoise 
A breath disturbs the balance ; and that scale 
In which we throw our hearts preponderates, 
910 And the other, like an empty one, flies up, 
And is accounted vanity and air ! 
To me the thought of death is terrible, 
Having such hold on life. To thee it is not 
So much even as the lifting of a latch ; 
915 Only a step into the open air 
Out of a tent already luminous 

preaching the Holy Places, so Elsie will put off all thoughts of earth on ap- 
proaching the gates of heaven. 

895, Angelo. St. Angelus, the Carmelite martyr, came from the East about 
1217, and preached in Palermo and Messina, where he was assassinated by a 
nobleman whose vices he had rebuked. In certain pictures roses are repre- 
sented falling from his mouth as sjrmbols of his eloquence, and angels are 
picking them up. The Bollandist Fathers, editors of Lives of the Saints, de- 
nied his existence. 

010. Out of n tent. Tlius the speech of the Saxon thane compared the life of 
man to a sparrow escaping from the storm into the warmed and lighted hall, 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 67 

With light that shines through its transparent walls ! 
O pure in heart I from thy sweet dust shall grow 
Lilies, upon whose petals will be written 
920 " Ave Maria " in characters of gold ! 



III. 
A STREET IN STRASBURG. 

Night. Prince Henry wandering alone, wrapped in a cloak. 

Prince Henry. Still is the night. The sound 
of feet 
Has died away from the empty street, 
And like an artisan, bending down 
His head on his anvil, the dark town 
6 Sleeps, with a slumber deep and sweet. 
Sleepless and restless, I alone, 
In the dusk and damp of these walls of stone, 
Wander and weep in my remorse ! 

Crier of the Dead, ringing a hell. 
Wake ! wake ! 
10 All ye that sleep ! 

Pray for the Dead ! 
Pray for the Dead ! 
Prince Henry. Hark! with what accents loud 
and hoarse 
This warder on the walls of death 

and, after a few moments' rest, flying out again. Freeman's Old English 
History, ch. vi. 

920. Ave Maria. In pictures of the Annunciation Gabriel is represented 
holding a lily, the emblem of purity, while he utters the Ave Maria, in allusion 
to the verse of Solomon^s Song ii. 1, " I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of 
the valleys." 

14. Warder. When the warder or watchman on the wall of a mediaeval 
castle descried the approach of strangers he ordered the drawbridge raised 



68 LONGFELLOW. 

18 Sends forth the challenge of his breath ! 
I see the dead that sleep in the grave ! 
They rise up and their garments wave, 
Dimly and si^ectra], as they rise, 
With the light of another world in their eyes ! 
Crier of the Dead. 
20 Wake ! wake ! 

All ye that sleep ! 
Pray for the Dead ! 
Pray for the Dead ! 
Prdtce Henry. Why for the dead, who are at 
rest ? 
26 Pray for the living, in whose breast 
The struggle between right and wrong 
Is raging terrible and strong, 
As when good angels war with devils ! 
This is the Master of the Revels, 

and the portcullis lowered, and challenged the visitors to state their errand, 
as here the crier of the dead challenges Death, and the dead rise up at the 
call. 

16. Dead in the grave. Perhaps suggested by the frescoes attributed to 
Orgagna in the Campo Santo at Pisa, where, in the picture of the Resurrection, 
the guardian angels are taking the dead from their graver, and bearing them to 
the Judgment, in accordance with mediaeval belief, {v. Symonds^ s Jtenaissance 
in Italy, Part iii. 200.) 

28. Good angels. In the Persian theology, with which the Hebrews became 
familiar during the Captivity, and from which they derived the belief in the 
existence of evil spirits, a constant struggle goes on between right and wrong 
personified, the former being represented by Ormuzd, the King of Light, and 
the latter by Ahriman, the Prince of Darkness. (?'. Clarke's Ten Great Relig- 
ions, i. ch. 5.) 

29. 3f aster of the Bevels. An officer of royal or noble houses, who presided 
over the Christmas festivities. In England he succeeded the Abbot or Lord of 
Misrule, who, before the Reformation, as president of the festivals of Easter, 
Whitsuntide, and Christmas, directed the Mysteries and Masquerades of the 
palace. The office of Master of the Revels was made permanent by Henry 
VIII., and included the superintendence of the court festivities throughout the 
year. To him pertained the licensing of plays, and when the office was abol- 
ished at the beginning of the last century this duty was assumed by the lord 
chamberlain, who now exercises it. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 69 

30 Who, at Life's flowing feast, proposes 
The health of absent friends, and pledges, 
Not in bright goblets crowned with roses, 
And tinkling as we touch their edges, 
But with his dismal, tinkling bell, 
35 That mocks and mimics their funeral knell ! 
Crier of the Dead. 
Wake I wake I 
All ye that sleep ! 
Pray for the Dead ! 
Pray for the Dead ! 
40 Prince Henry. Wake not, beloved ! be thy 
sleep 
Silent as night is, and as deep ! 
There walks a sentinel at thy gate 
Whose heart is heavy and desolate, 
And the heavings of whose bosom number 
46 The respirations of thy slumber, 
As if some strange, mysterious fate 
Had linked two hearts in one, and mine 
Went madly wheeling about thine. 
Only with wider and wilder sweep ! 

Crier of the Dead, at a distance, # 

»o Wake ! wake ! 

All ye that sleep ! 
Pray for the Dead ! 
Pray for the Dead ! 
Prince Henry. Lo ! with what depth of black- 
ness thrown 

31. Pledges. The custom of pledging, or drinking healths, is derived from 
the habits of the Danes and other Northmen, who would occasionally stab a 
person who was in the act of drinking. Consequently, people would not drink 
in company unless some one present would be their pledge or surety that they 
should come to no harm while thus engaged. 



70 LONGFELLOW. 

65 Against the clouds, far up the skies 
The walls of the cathedral rise, 
Like a mysterious grove of stone, 
With fitful lights and shadows blending, 
As from behind, the moon, ascending, 

60 Lights its dim aisles and paths unknown ! 
The wind is rising ; but the boughs 
Rise not and fall not with the wind 
That through their foliage sobs and soughs ; 
Only the cloudy rack behind, 

66 Drifting onward, wild and ragged, 
Gives to each spire and buttress jagged 
A seeming motion undefined. 

Below on the square, an armed knight, 

Still as a statue and as white, 
70 Sits on his steed, and the moonbeams quiver 

Upon the points of his armor bright 

As on the ripples of a river. 

He lifts the visor from his cheek. 

And beckons, and makes as he would speak. 
75 Walter the Min7iesinger. Friend ! can you tell 
me where alight 

Thuringia's horsemen for the night ? 

57. Grove of stone. Thus the pointed or Gothic style of architecture is 
said to have been suggested by the interlacing branches of the trees of the 
Teutonic forests or the sacred groves of the Celts ; the pointed arch, however, 
is of Eastern origin ; it was brought to Europe by the crusaders, and first 
used in France, and by French workmen in England and Germany, as at 
Strasburg. It was an architectural necessity, vaults formed by the interlacing 
arcs of circles being stronger, and thus better adapted to sustain the weight 
of the roof, than those supported by round arches, {v. Fergusson's Hist, of 
Architecture, i.) 

69. As ivhite. Over their armor the crusaders wore a white mantle with a 
red cross sewn upon the breast or shoulder, in imitation of the pilgrims, some 
of whom even had the sacred sign branded upon them with a hot iron ; this, 
however, was subsequently forbidden. 

76. Thuringia. An early Gotliic kingdom annexed to the Frankish domin - 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 71 

For I have lingered in the rear. 
And wander vainly up and down. 

PmxcE Heney. I am a stranger in the town, 
80 As thou art ; but the voice I hear 
Is not a stranger to mine ear. 
Thou art Walter of the Vogelweid ! 

Walter. Thou hast guessed rightly ; and thy 
name 
Is Henry of Hoheneck ! 
86 Prixce Hexry. Ay, the same. 

Walter, embrdcing him. Come closer, closer 
to my side ! 
What brings thee hither ? What potent charm 
Has drawn thee from thy German farm 
Into the old Alsatian city ? 
90 Prince Hexry. A tale of wonder and of pity ! 
A wretched man, almost by stealth 
Dragging my body to Salern, 
In the vain hope and search for health, 
And destined never to return. 
95 Already thou hast heard the rest. 

But what brings thee, thus armed and dight 
In the equipments of a knight ? 

Walter. Dost thou not see upon my breast 
The cross of the Crusaders shine ? 
100 My pathway leads to Palestine. 

ions A. D. 530 ; a mediaeval name of that part of Germany which is now Saxony 
and the Saxou duchies. In assembling at Strasburg for the crusade the Ger- 
man knights were assigned quarters by districts or divisions of the Empire. 

89. Alsatian city. The foundation of Str3,sburg, tlie Roman Argentoratum, 
antedates authentic history. The present cathedral was built on the site of 
a Roman temple, which took the place of a Druidical grove of the first Celtic 
settlers. 

91. By stealth. Because banned by his sentence of excommunication. 

100. Palestine. Walter is on his way to join the Emperor Frederick II., 



72 LONGFELLO W. 

Prince Henry. Ah, would that way were also 
mine! 

noble poet ! thou whose heart 
Is like a nest of singing-birds 
Rocked on the topmost bough of life, 

lOB Wilt thou, too, from our sky depart, 

And in the clangor of the strife 

Mingle the music of thy words ? 

Walter. My hopes are high, my heart is proud. 

And like a trumpet long and loud, 
110 Thither my thoughts all clang and ring ! 

My life is in my hand, and lo ! 

1 grasp and bend it as a bow, 

And shoot forth from its trembling string 
An arrow, that shall be, perchance, 
115 Like the arrow of the Israelite king 
Shot from the window toward the east. 
That of the Lord's deliverance ! 

Prince Henry. My life, alas ! is what thou 
seest ! 
O enviable fate ! to be 
120 Strong, beautiful, and armed like thee 
, With lyre and sword, with song and steel ; 
A hand to smite, a heart to feel ! 
Thy heart, thy hand, thy lyre, thy sword. 
Thou givest all unto thy Lord ; 

who sailed from Italy on the sixth crusade (sometimes called the fifth) in Sep- 
tember, 1227. For the character of Frederick, v. Milman's Lat. Christ. Bk. 
X. oh. 3, and Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. lix. Walter was now fifty-seven 
years of age. 

103. Nest. Of the poets who were educated at Pembroke College, Oxford, 
Dr. Jolmson once said : " Sir, we are a nest of singing-birds." 

115. ArrouK By command of Elisha King Joash shot an arrow eastward 
from his window, " the arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of de- 
liverance from Syria." (//. Kings xiii. 14-17.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 73 

125 While I, so mean and abject grown, 
Am thinking of myself alone. 

Walter. Be patient : Time will reinstate 
Thy health and fortunes. 

Prince Hexry. 'T is too late ! 

130 I cannot strive against my fate ! 

Walter. Come with me ; for my steed is weary ; 
Our journey has been long and dreary, 
And, dreaming of his stall, he dints 
With his impatient hoofs the flints. 
136 Prince Henry, aside. I am ashamed, in my 
disgrace. 
To look into that noble face ! 
To-morrow, Walter, let it be. 

Walter. To-morrow, at the dawn of day, 
I shall again be on my way. 
140 Come with me to the hostelry, 
For I have many things to say. 
Our journey into Italy 
Perchance together we may make ; 
Wilt thou not do it for my sake ? 
146 Prince Henry. A sick man's pace would but 
impede 
Thine eager and impatient speed. 
Besides, my pathway leads me round 
To Hirschau, in the forest's bound, 
Where I assemble man and steed, 
160 And all things for my journey's need. 
They go out, 

148. ForesVs bound. The Black Forest, the Silva Hercynia of the Ro- 
mans, a mountainous district of Southern Germany, in the present grand duchy 
of Baden and kingdom of Wurtemberg. After the eighth century more than 
ninety Benedictine abbeys were established in it. 



74 LONGFELLOW 

Lucifer, flying over the city. Sleep, sleep, O 
city ! till the light 

Wake you to sin and crime again. 

Whilst on your dreams, like dismal rain, 

I scatter downward through the night 
155 My maledictions dark and deep. 

I have more martyrs in your walls 

Than God has ; and they cannot sleep ;' 

They are my bondsmen and my thralls ; 

Their wretched lives are full of pain, 
160 Wild agonies of nerve and brain ; 

And every heart-beat, every breath, 

Is a convulsion worse than death ! 

Sleep, sleep, O city ! though Avithin 

The circuit of your walls there be 
166 No habitation free from sin, 

And all its nameless misery ; 

The aching heart, the aching head, 

Grief for the living and the dead. 

And foul corruption of the time, 
170 Disease, distress, and want, and woe, 

And crimes, and passions that may grow 

Until they ripen into crime ! 

SQUARE IN FRONT OF THE CATHEDRAL. 

Easter Sunday.^ Fthau Cvt^bbut preaching to the crowd Jrom a 
pulpit in the open air. Prince Henry and Elsie crossing the 
square. 

Prtxce Hexry. This is the day, when from 
the dead 

* Easter Sunday. The name of the feast in northern countries is derived 
from Eostre, the Teutonic gcldess of spring, in whose honor a festival was 
celebrated in the fourth month. In Romanic countries it is called Paques, 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 75 

Our Lord arose ; and everywhere, 
175 Out of their darkness and despair, 

Triumphant over fears and foes, 

The hearts of his disciples rose. 

When to the women, standing near, 

The Angel in shining vesture said, 
180 " The Lord is risen ; he is not here ! " 

And, mindful that the day is come, 

On all the hearths in Christendom 

The fires are quenched, to be again 

Rekindled from the sun, that high 
185 Is dancing in the cloudless sky. 

Pascua, from the Hebrew name of the Passover festival. It was observed 
in the Church as early as the first century in commemoration of Christ's res- 
urrection, of which tlie Passover and the Paschal Lamb were shadows. 

183. Fires. Fire produced by rubbing together two pieces of dry wood was 
considered sacred, and the Greeks and Romans, as well as the Celts and some 
Christian peoples until recent times, adopted the same or a similar process in 
lighting fires connected with religious ceremonies. The Peruvian sun-wor- 
shippers collected in a concave mirror the rays of that luminary at their 
great solar festival in midsummer, and the purity of the Easter fire is still 
secured in Germany and Great Britahi either from the consecrated Easter 
candle, or from the new and pure element produced by the priest from flint 
and steel. The tapers are relighted on Easter Eve in the Catholic Church with 
the words Lumen Christi ! " Light of Christ ! " to which the priest responds, 
Deo grafias ! " Thanks be to God ! " Under the early emperors business and 
public spectacles were suspended at this season for fourteen days. In the 
fourth century people of all ranks flocked to the churches on Easter Eve, car- 
rying lighted lamps and tapers, significant of their expectation of Christ's re- 
appearance at this time. 

185. Dancing. That the sun danced with delight at its rising on Easter 
morning is an ancient superstition, of an earlier origin than the Christian fes- 
tivities of that day. Shakespeare uses the language of his time when he says 
in Coriolanus v. 4, that the trumpets, etc., " make the sun dance ; " Sir John 
Suckling, in his Ballad upon a Wedding, exclaims : — 
" But O, she dances such a way ! 
No smi upon an Easter-day 
Is half so fine a sight." 
Sir Thomas Browne says ( Vulgar Errors) : " We shall not, I hope, dispar- 
age the resurrection of our Redeemer if we say that the sun doth not dance 
on Easter day." {v. Knight's Life of Shakespeare, 63.) 



76 LONGFELLOW. 

The churches are all decked with flowers, 
The salutations among men 
Are but the Angel's words divine, 
" Christ is arisen ! " and the bells 
190 Catch the glad murmur, as it swells, 
And chant together in their towers. 
All hearts are glad ; and free from care 
The faces of the people shine. 
See what a crowd is in the square, 
19B Gayly and gallantly arrayed ! 

Elsie. Let us go back ; I am afraid ! 
Prince Henry. Nay, let us mount the church- 
steps here, 
Under the doorway's sacred shadow ; 
We can see all things, and be freer 
200 From the crowd that madly heaves and presses ! 

Elsie. What a gay pageant ! what bright 
dresses ! 
It looks like a flower-besprinkled meadow. 
What is that yonder on the square ? 

Prince Henry. A pulpit in the open air, 
205 And a Friar, who is preaching to the crowd 
In a voice so deep and clear and loud. 
That, if we listen, and give heed. 
His lowest words will reach the ear. 

Friar Cuthbert, gesticzdating and cracking a 
postilion's whip.* What ho ! good people ! 
do you not hear ! 

186. Floicers. Hence Florida received its name, being discovered on Easter, 
— Paseua Florida. 

189. Christ is arisen. This is still the Easter salutation in Russia. 

189. The bells. In Rome the bells are silent from eleven o'clock Maundy 
Thursday morning to the same hour on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. 

* The order of mendicant friars who devoted themselves particularly to 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 77 

210 Dashing along at the top of his speed, 
Booted and spurred, on his jaded steed, 
A courier comes with words of cheer. 
Courier ! what is the news, I pray ? 
" Christ is arisen ! " Whence come you ? " From 
court." 
216 Then I do not believe it ; you say it in sport. 
Cracks his whip again. 
Ah, here comes another, riding this way ; 
We soon shall know what he has to say. 
Courier ! what are the tidings to-day ? 
" Christ is arisen ! " Whence come you ? " From 
town." 
220 Then I do not believe it ; away with you, clown. 
Cracks his whip more violently. 
And here comes a third, who is spurring amain ; 
What news do you bring, with your loose-hanging 

rein, 
Your spurs wet with blood, and your bridle with 

foam ? 
" Christ is arisen ! " Whence come you ? " From 
Rome." 

preaching were the Dominicans, founded by Siint Dominic in 1216. They 
wore a black cloak over a white tunic, and had a great reputation as artists 
as well as preachers. Much of this sermon is taken literally from a discourse 
of Fra Barletta, a Dominican of the fifteenth century, who, like many other 
mendicant preachers of the Middle Ages, availed himself of story, legend, 
and jest to gain the attention of his hearers, and thus made the pulpit a source 
of entertainment. The sermon also exhibits the prevailing taste for symbol- 
ism, as in the interpretation of bell-ringing, which was derived from the 
schoolmen. Schiller introduces a similarly familiar discourse in his graphic 
picture of army life during the Thirty Years' War, Wallenstehi's Camp. 
The great preachers of the Middle Ages arose in connection with the cru- 
sades. " Preaching, as a necessary and constituent part of rsligious culture," 
says Allen {The Continuity of Christian Thought, 251), " originated with the 
heretical sects of the twelfth century, such as the Cathari and the Waldenses. 
When its power was seen in diffusing heresy the Dominicans seized upon it as 
equally effective for overcoming heresy." 



78 LONGFELLOW. 

225 Ah, now I believe. He is risen, indeed. 

Ride on with the news, at the top of your speed ! 
Great applause among the crowd. 

To come back to my text ! When the news was 
first spread 

That Christ was arisen indeed from the dead, 

Very great was the joy of the angels in heaven ; 
230 And as great the dispute as to who should carry 

The tidings thereof to the Virgin Mary, 

Pierced to the heart with sorrows seven. 

Old Father Adam was first to propose, 

As being the author of all our woes ; 
235 But he was refused, for fear, said they, 

He would stop to eat apples on the way ! 

Abel came next, but petitioned in vain. 

Because he might meet with his brother Cain ! 

Noah, too, was refused, lest his weakness for wine 
240 Should delay him at every tavern-sign ; 

And John the Baptist could not get a vote. 

On account of his old-fashioned camel's-hair coat ; 

And the Penitent Thief, who died on the cross, 

Was reminded that all his bones were broken ! 
245 Till at last, when each in turn had spoken, 

The company being still at a loss, 

The Angel, who rolled away the stone. 

Was sent to the sepulchre, all alone, 

And filled with glory that gloomy prison, 
250 And said to the Virgin, " The Lord is arisen ! " 

232. Sorrows seven. The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Mary were : 1st. When 
Jesus was presented in the Temple and Simeon predicted, " Yea, a sword shall 
pierce through thy own soul also," foretelling Christ's passion and death ; 2d. 
The Flight into Egypt ; 3d. When Christ was lost for three days at Jerusa- 
lem ; 4th. When she met Christ bearing the cross ; 5th. When she saw him 
raised upon the cross and beheld him die ; 6th. When she saw the lance 
pierce his side after his death ; 7th. When she saw his body laid in the tomb. 
Seven joys correspond to these seven sorrows. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 79 

The Cathedral bells ring. 

But hark ! the bells are beginning to chime ; 

And I feel that I am growing hoarse. 

I will put an end to my discourse, 

And leave the rest for some other time. 
255 For the bells themselves are the best of preachers ; 

Their brazen lips are learned teachers, 

From their pulpits of stone, in the upper air, 

Sounding aloft, without crack or flaw, 

Shriller than trumpets under the Law, 
260 Now a sermon and now a prayer. 

The clangorous hammer is the tongue, 

This way, that way, beaten and swung. 

That from mouth of brass, as from Mouth of Gold, 

May be taught the Testaments, New and Old. 
266 And above it the great cross-beam of wood 

Representeth the Holy Rood, 

Upon which, like the bell, our hopes are hung. 

And the wheel wherewith it is swayed and rung 

Is the mind of man, that round and round 
270 Sways, and maketh the tongue to sound I 
And the rope, with its twisted cordage three, 

Denoteth the Scriptural Trinity 

Of Morals, and Symbols, and History ; 

And the upward and downward motions show 
275 That we touch upon matters high and low ; 

And the constant change and transmutation 

266. The Holy Eood. The Rood, from an Anglo-Saxon word signifying rod 
or cross, is a representation, carved in wood or stone, of Christ hanging on the 
tree, or of the Holy Trinity. Thus the Abbey of Holyrood in Edinburgh re- 
ceived its name because a cross miraculously descended from the sky into the 
hand of David I. , and put to flight a stag which was attacking him. In the 
friar's sermon Christ and the other members of the Trinity, " our hopes," 
are hung from the Rood, as the bell from the cross-beam. 



80 LONGFELLOW. 

Of action and of contemplation. 
Downward, the Scripture brought from on high, 
Upward, exalted again to the sky; 
280 Downward, the literal interpretation, 
Upward, the Vision and Mystery ! 

And now, my hearers, to make an end, 
I have only one word more to say ; 
In the church, in honor of Easter day, 
285 Will be represented a Miracle Play ; 

And I hope you will all have the grace to attend. 
Christ bring us at last to his felicity ! 
Pax vobiscum ! et Benedicite ! 

IN THE CATHEDRAL. 

Chant. Kyrie Eleison ! 
290 Christe Eleison ! 

Elsie. I am at home here in my Father's house ! 
These paintings of the Saints upon the walls 
Have all familiar and benignant faces. 

285. Play. Miracle Plays were given on the anniversaries of the great 
heathen festivals of Eostre and Yule-tide to attempt some visible representa- 
tion of the meaning of the Easter and Christmas festivals wliich supplanted 
them. 

288. Benedicite. The blessing of the congregation by the priest at the con- 
clusion of the office of the mass. "In all these popular sermons," says 
Scherer, " we notice a false striving after realistic effect, much obscure learn- 
ing, and a mass of satire and anecdote, of frivolous and comic ingredients." 
{Hist, of Ger. Lit. ch. ix.) 

'^'^O. Kyrie Eleison. The response in the Litany, "Lord have mercj' upon 
us ; unrist have mercy upon us ! " Litanies, from a Greek word signifying 
supplication, were first used in processions to deprecate the divine wrath in 
times of pestilence, as when Gregory I. led the people of Rome to St. Peter's, 
and saw the archangel Michael sheathe his blood-stained sword above the 
mausoleum of Hadrian, hence called the Castle of St. Angelo. 

292. Paintings. Even before the time of Constantine the Great pictures 
representing the events related in the Scriptures had been set up in churches, 
as Gregory I. said later, " not for worship, but to instruct the minds of the ig- 
norant." Pictures were first introduced into English churches in the seventh 
century. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 81 

Prince Henry. The portraits of the family of 
God! 
296 Thine own hereafter shall be placed among them. 
Elsie. How very grand it is and wonderful ! 
Never have I beheld a church so splendid ! 
Such columns, and such arches, and such windows, 
So many tombs and statues in the chapels, 
300 And under them so many confessionals. 

They must be for the rich. I should not like 
To tell my sins in such a church as this. 
Who built it? 

Prince Henry. A great master of his craft, 
305 Erwin von Steinbach ; but not he alone, 
For many generations labored with him. 
Children that came to see these Saints in stone. 
As day by day out of the blocks they rose, 
Grew old and died, and still the work went on, 

295. Thine own. Intimating that after her death she would be canonized, 
or enrolled in the authorized list of saints and martyrs, whose pictures after- 
ward adorned the walls of churches. The first formal canonization was in- 
stituted by Leo III. in 804, and after 1170 the right was limited to papal au- 
thority, 

299. Chapels. The religious rites of the Greeks and Romans were chiefly 
performed in the open air, and only their idols and altars needed architectural 
protection. In the colder regions of the North the Church required protection 
for the worshippers ; hence religious edifices were arranged with reference to 
this necessity. The nave was constructed in the centre for the processions 
on the occasion of great solemnities ; aisles were made for the reception of the 
beholders ; choirs were set apart for the service of the priests, and chapels 
were erected around the edifice by grateful parishioners, whose tombs and 
statues gave opportunity for the display of wealth as well as of pietj'. 

305. E. von Steinbach. The cathedral v/as rebuilt at the beginning of the 
eleventh century ; part of the present nave was completed in 1275 ; the foun- 
dation of the towers was laid the next year, and from that time until his death 
in 1318 Erwin von Steinbach carried out his designs, which were continued by 
his son, and afterward by his daughter Sabina. The spire was not completed 
until 1439. The statue of the architect was in reality carved by himself. It 
stands in the south transept near the famous clock, opposite the pillar here 
described. The connection of Sabina with the cathedral is doubtful. 
6 



82 LONGFELLOW. 

310 And on, and on, and is not yet completed. 
The generation that succeeds our own 
Perhaps may finish it. The architect 
Built his great heart into these sculptured stones, 
And with him toiled his children, and their lives 
315 Were builded, with his own, into the walls. 
As offerings unto God. You see that statue 
Fixing its joyous, but deep-wrinkled eyes 
Upon the Pillar of the Angels yonder. 
That is the image of the master, carved 
320 By the fair hand of his own child, Sabina. 

Elsie. How beautiful is the column that he looks 

at! 
Prince Henry. That, too, she sculptured. At 
the base of it 
Stand the Evangelists ; above their heads 
Four Angels blowing upon marble trumpets, 
325 And over them the blessed Christ, surrounded 
By his attendant ministers, upholding 
The instruments of his passion. 

Elsie. O my Lord ! 

Would I could leave behind me upon earth 
330 Some monument to thy glory, such as this ! 

Prince Henry. A greater monument than this 
thou leavest 
In thine own life, all purity and love ! 
See, too, the Rose, above the western portal 

333. The Rose. The beautiful circular window of painted glass, called Rose 
or Marigold from its shape and the richness and variety of its hues, in the 
west front of this cathedral, is forty-three feet in diameter, and, with the 
other glass, is the work of the fifteenth century. Such windows are marked 
features of the richest period of Gothic architecture. 

" And the great Rose upon its leaves displays 
Christ's triumph, and the angelic roundelays." 

Longfellow : Sonnet V. — On Translating Dante. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 83 

Resplendent with a thousand gorgeous colors, 
335 The perfect flower of Gothic loveliness ! 

Elsie. And, in the gallery, the long line of 
statues, 
Christ with his twelve Apostles watching us ! 

A Bishop in armor, hooted and spurred, passes with his train.* 

Prince Hexry. But come away ; we have not 
time to look. 
The crowd already fill the church, and yonder 
340 Upon a stage, a herald with a trumpet. 
Clad like the Angel Gabriel, proclaims 
The Mystery that will now be represented. 

* Fighting prelates were not uncommon in the Middle Ages, when many of 
them were princes as well as ecclesiastics. A certain Bishop of Durham de- 
fended his episcopal authority with arms. The Bishop of Norwich, temp. 
Richard II., routed Wat Tyler's insurgents in the iield, and then confessed and 
absolved them as he hurried them to the gibbet. He afterward engaged in 
armed quarrels upon the continent, Peter Damian complained of bishops 
who rode attended by troops of soldiers, "girt about with armed men, like a 
heathen general!" {v. Stephen's Essays in Eccles. Biog., — Hildebrand, 
16.) 

341. Gabriel, the second in rank among the archangels, is always repre- 
sented as a messenger bearing important tidings, as to the Virgin Mary, hia 
salutation forming the Ave Ifaria of the Catliolic rosary, (v. Sacred and Le- 
gend. Art, i. 118.) The Jews believed him to be chief of the angelic guards 
and keeper of the celestial treasury. The Mohammedans call him their pa- 
tron saint, as the Prophet considered him his inspiring angel. 

342. Mystery. A distinction existed between Mysteries and Moralities. The 
Mysterium was derived from the Bible, and was the visible representation of 
the incarnation and redemption ; the Moralities were allegorical representa- 
tions of virtue and vice. They were sometimes united, as in the first scene of 
tliis play, where the Four Virtues appear with Mercy and Wisdom. In Eng- 
land the Moralities gradually superseded the Scriptural or legendary charac- 
ters, and are frequently alluded to by Shakespeare, {v. Twelfth Night, iv. 1 ; 
/. Henry IV. ii. 4 ; II. Henry IV. iii. 2 ; Richard III. iii. 1 ; Hamlet, iii. 4.) 



84 LONGFELLOW. 

THE NATIVITY. 

A MIRACLE-PLAY.* 

INTROITUS. 

Pr.eco. Come, good people, all and each, 

Come and listen to our speech! 
346 In your presence here I stand. 

With a trumpet in my hand, 

To announce the Easter Play, 

Which we represent to-day ! 

First of all we shall rehearse, 
380 In our action and our verse, 

The Nativity of our Lord, 

As written in the old record 

Of the Protevangelion, 

So that lie who reads may run ! 
Blows his trumpet. 

* Miracle-plays began to be given in France in the eleventh centnry, in Eng- 
land and Germany about 1190, and so on to the fourteenth century. The first 
plays in Germany were written by a nun, Roswitha of Gandersheim. At first 
the interior of the church was the scene of these representations, as here, 
but later the stage was set up in the open air. The Passion Plays arose from 
tlie custom of readmg aloud during Passion Week the Gospel account of the 
sufferings of Christ, and assigning to dilferent persons the dialogues of the 
narrative, {v. Hase, 3Iiracle Plays and Sacred Dramas.) 

343. PrcEco. It was the duty of the herald not only to introduce the play 
by a prologiie, but also to present the actors to the audience with a simple de- 
scription of the action. 

353. Protevangelion. The second of the apocryphal gospels, containing an 
historical account of the birth of Christ, was ascribed to St. James the Less, 
The allusions to it in the ancient Fathers are numerous, especially concerning 
the age of Joseph at the time of his espousal to Mary. 

354. Run. {v. Habakkuk ii. 2.) Often quoted : " He who runs may read." 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 85 

I. HEAVEN. 

355 Mercy, at the feet of God. Have pity, Lord I 
be not afraid 
To save mankind, whom thou hast made. 
Nor let the souls that were betrayed 
Perish eternally ! 

Justice. It cannot be, it must not be ! 
360 When in the garden placed by thee, 
The fruit of the forbidden tree 
He ate, and he must die ! 
Mercy. Have pity, Lord ! let penitence 
Atone for disobedience, 
365 Nor let the fruit of man's offence 
Be endless misery ! 

Justice. What penitence proportionate 
Can e'er be felt for sin so great ? 
Of the forbidden fruit he ate, 
370 And damned must he be ! 

God. He shall be saved, if that within 
The bounds of earth one free from sin 
Be found, who for his kith and kin 
Will suffer martyrdom. 
375 The Four Virtues. Lord ! we have searched 
the world around. 
From centre to the utmost bound. 
But no such mortal can be found ; 
Despairing, back we come. 
Wisdom. No mortal, but a God made man, 

375. Four Virtues. Prudence, Justice, Temperance, Fortitude. They were 
called the "cardinal virtues," because the Christian character is supported by 
them as by a hinge (cardo). Personified they formed the second choir of the 
second hierarchy of spiritual beings, — Dominions, Virtues, Powers. 



86 LONGFELLOW. 

380 Can ever carry out this plan, 
Achieving what none other can, 
Salvation unto all ! 
God. Go, then, my beloved Son ! 
It can by thee alone be done ; 
386 By thee the victory shall be won 
O'er Satan and the Fall ! 

Here the Angel Gabriel shall leave Paradise and fly towards the 
Earth; the Jaws of Hell open below,* and the Devils walk aboutj 
making a great noise. 

II. MARY AT THE WELL.t 

Mary. Along the garden walk, and thence 
Through the wicket in the garden fence, 
I steal with quiet pace, 
390 My pitcher at the well to fill. 

That lies so deep and cool and still 
In this sequestered place. 

These sycamores keep guard around ; 
I see no face, I hear no sound, 
395 Save bubblings of the spring, 

* A stage of three stories was often erected, the topmost representing Par- 
adise (hence in Germany this word is used for the upper gallery of a theatre, 
anglice, "the Gods") ; on the middle stage was the Earth ; below were the 
"Jaws of Hell," sometimes represented by the opening and shutting of the 
mouth of an enormous dragon. Goethe introduces the Jaws of Hell in the 
stage machinery of the second part of Faust (V.). 

t {v. Protevringelion^Ss..) All the scenes of this Miracle Play in which the 
events differ from the narrative of the Evangelists are taken literally from 
the Protevangelion and the First and Second Gospels of the Infancy of Christ 
in the Apocryphal Neio Testament. 

393. Sycamores. The sycamore was brought into Europe by the crusaders, 
and became a favorite tree because sacred to the Madonna, from the legend 
that a gi-ove of them sprang up miraculously to refresh the Holy Family on 
the Flight into Egypt. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 87 

And my companions, who within 
The threads of gold and scarlet spin, 
And at their labor sing. 

The Angel Gabriel. Hail, Virgin Mary, full 
of grace ! 
Here Mary looketh around her, trembling, and then saith : 
400 Mary. Who is it speaketh in this place, 
With such a gentle voice ? 

Gabriel. The Lord of heaven is with thee 
now ! 
Blessed among all women thou. 
Who art his holy choice ! 
405 Mary, setting down the pitcher. What can this 
mean ? No one is near, 
And yet, such sacred words I hear, 
I almost fear to stay. 
Here the Angel, appearing to her, shall say 

Gabriel. Fear not, O Mary ! but believe ! 
For thou, a Virgin, shalt conceive 
410 A child this very day. 

Fear not, O Mary ! from the sky 
The majesty of the Most High 

Shall overshadow thee ! 

Mary. Behold the handmaid of the Lord ! 
415 According to thy holy word, 

So be it unto me ! 

Here the Devils shall again make a great noise, under the 
stage. 

399. Full of grace. A translation of the words of the Catholic rosary, — 
Ave Maria gratia plena I 



88 LONGFELLOW. 

III. THE ANGELS OF THE SEVEN PLANETS,* 

BEARING THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM. 

The Angels. The Angels of the Planets Seven, 
Across the shinmg fields of heaven 

The natal star we bring ! 
420 Dropping our sevenfold virtues down, 
As priceless jewels in the crown 

Of Christ, our new-born King. 

Raphael. I am the Angel of the Sun, 
Whose flaming wheels began to run 
42B When God's almighty breath 
Said to the darkness and the Night, 
Let there be light ! and there was light ! 

I bring the gift of Faith. 

Onafiel. I am the Angel of the Moon, 
430 Darkened, to be rekindled soon 

Beneath the azure cope ! 

* Seven angels are the regents of the seven planets, to which seven virtues 
correspond, generally the following: Humility, Liberality, Chastity, Meek- 
ness, Temperance, Brotherly Love, Diligence. The mediaeval theory of the 
connection between angels and planets ruled by them was derived through rab- 
binical traditions from writers of those oriental nations who were the first to 
develop the idea of angels and to study the stars. Raphael painted angels as 
regents of the planets in the church of St. Maria del Popolo in Rome. 

423. Raphael. The third archangel, protector of the young and innocent, 
the patron saint of travellers {v. Book of Tohit) ; " the sociable spirit," sent to 
Adam and Eve. {v. Par. Lost, Bk. v. ; Sacred and Legend. Art, i. 126.) 

423. Sun. All systems of astronomy, until the adoption of the Copernican, 
included the sun and moon among the planets. Thus Milton makes Adam, 
in his morning hymn, address the sun, moon, and " ye five other wandering 
fires." Par. Lost, iv. In the Talmud a special angel was assigned to every 
star and to every element, and the idea of this connection, and of the influ- 
ence of stars upon human destiny, was common throughout the Middle Ages. 

429. Onafiel. The seven angels are elsewhere given as Raphael, Michael, 
Gabriel, Uriel, who taught Esdras, Chemuel, who wrestled with Jacob, Zo- 
phiel, who drove Adam and Eve out of Paradise, and Zadkiel, who stayed the 
hand of Abraham when about to slay Isaac, {v. Stanley's Lectures on the 
Jewish Church, ch. xlv.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 89 

Nearest to earth, it is my ray 
That best illumes the midnight way. 

I bring the gift of Hope ! 
435 Anael. The Angel of the Star of Love, 
The Evening Star, that shines above 

The place where lovers be, 
Above all happy hearths and homes, 
On roofs of thatch, or golden domes, 
440 I give him Charity ! 

ZoBiACHEL. The Planet Jupiter is mine ! 
The mightiest star of all that shine, 

Except the sun alone ! 
He is the High Priest of the Dove, 
445 And sends, from his great throne above, 

Justice, that shall atone ! 

Michael. The Planet Mercury, whose place 
Is nearest to the sun in space. 

Is my allotted sphere ! 
450 And with celestial ardor swift 
I bear upon my hands the gift 

Of heavenly Prudence here ! 

Uriel. I am the Minister of Mars, 
The strongest star among the stars ! 
455 My songs of power prelude 

The march and battle of man's life, 
And for the suffering and the strife, 

I give him Fortitude ! 

444. He is the High Priest. According to Aristotle {de Coelo, ii. 2), the 
heavenly spheres have a soul or life, including in themselves a motive power ; 
they have intellectual faculties and volition, and a number of purely spiritual 
beings exist, corresponding to the number of spheres. These beings are the 
causes of the existence and motion of the spheres, and derive their existence 
directly or indirectly from the First Cause. Philosophers following Aristotle 
held that the world is governed by influences emanating from the spheres, and 
that the latter comprehend and have knowledge of the things which they in- 
fluence. 



90 LONGFELLOW. 

Orifel. The Angel of the uttermost 
460 Of all the shining, heavenly host, 

From the far-off expanse 
Of the Saturnian, endless space 
I bring the last, the crowning grace, 

The gift of Temperance ! 

A sudden light shines from the windows of the stable in the village 
below.* 



IV. THE WISE MEN OF THE EAST.t 

The stable of the Inn. The Virgin and Child. Three Gypsy 
Kings, Gaspar, Melchior, and Belshazzar, shall come in. % 

466 Gaspar. Hail to thee, Jesus of Nazareth ! 
Though in a manger thou draw breath. 
Thou art greater than Life and Death, 

Greater than Joy or Woe ! 
This cross upon the line of life 

* This scene has taken place in the uppermost story of the stage, and the 
light below shines in the second story. 

t Called Magi, from a Persian word signifying priest, a sacred caste of the 
Medo-Persians, who later practised divination and other occult sciences, but 
originally superintended everything that regarded the higher culture of the 
people. For this scene, v. First Infancy of Christ, iii. 

t When the Adoration of the Magi had become, under monkish influences, 
one of the most popular legends of the Middle Ages, the wise men were rep- 
resented as kings : Caspar of Tarsus, the land of merchants ; Melchior of Arabia 
and Nubia ; and Belshazzar, or Balthasar, of Saba, the land of spices and pre- 
cious gems. The Empress Helena removed their remains from the far East to 
Constantinople. During the first crusade they were carried from the mosque 
of St. Sophia to Milan, and, when Frederick Barbarossa took the city in 1164, 
he gave them to the archbishop of Cologne, in the cathedral of wliich city 
their skulls, adorned with precious stones, may still be seen. But three 
kings were worshipped in Germany long before the story of the journey of 
the Magi became attached to Eastern monarchs, and the " Three Kings of 
Cologne " were probably the three greater Teutonic divinities, Odin, Thor, 
and Tyr. {v. Keary's Outlines, 382.) 

469. Cross. For the legend that, on the arrival of the Holy Family in 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 91 

470 Portendeth struggle, toil, and strife, 
And through a region with peril rife 
In darkness shalt thou go ! 
Melchior. Hail to thee. King of Jerusalem ! 
Though humbly born in Bethlehem, 
475 A sceptre and a diadem 

Await thy brow and hand ! 
The sceptre is a simple reed, 
The crown will make thy temples bleed, 
And in thy hour of greatest need, 
480 Abashed thy subjects stand ! 

Belshazzar. Hail to thee, Christ of Christen- 
dom! 
O'er all the earth thy kingdom come ! 
From distant Trebizond to Rome 
Thy name shall men adore ! 
48B Peace and good-will among all men, 
The Virgin has returned again. 
Returned the old Saturnian reign 
And Golden Age once more. 

Egypt, a gypsy woman foretold the life and passion of Christ by the lines on 
his hand, v. Legends of the Madonna, 260. 

483. Trebizond. An important sea-port of Asiatic Turkey on the Black 
Sea, entrepdt of the trade of Armenia and Northern Persia with Europe. 
Tradition says that the Magi returned by sea to their homes, for fear of 
Herod ; that they never resumed their royal state, but preached Christ and 
ultimately suffered martyrdom. 

487. Saturnian. Saturnus was a fabulous god or king of Italy, who intro- 
duced agriculture, and from whom the coimtry received the name of Satur- 
nia, from sero, satum, " to sow," the laud of plenty. During his reign Italy 
enjoyed her golden age, which disappeared with him. From his withdrawal 
comes the second name, Latium, from latere, " to lie hid." The Roman festi- 
val of the Saturnalia celebrated the memory of the founder of agriculture. 

488. Golden Age. That which Italy enjoyed under Saturn is therefore the 
best age. Hesiod names five : the Golden or patriarchal, under Saturn ; the 
Silver or voluptuous, under Jupiter ; the Bronze or warhke, under Neptune ; 
the Heroic or renaissant, under Mars ; the Iron, the present age, mider Pluto. 
According to Lucretius there were three ages, of Stone, Bronze, and Iron. 



92 LONGFELLO W. 

The Child Christ.* Jesus, the Son of God, 
am I, 
490 Born here to suffer and to die 
According to the prophecy. 
That other men may live ! 
The Virgin. " And now these clothes, that 
wrapped him, take 
And keep them precious, for his sake ; 
495 Our benediction thus we make. 
Naught else have we to give, f 
She gives them swaddling-clothes, and they depart. 



V. THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT. J 

JSere shall Joseph come in, leading an ass, on which are seated Mary 
and the Child. 

Mary. Here will we rest us, under these 
O'erhanging branches of the trees, 
Where robins chant their Litanies 
BOO And canticles of joy. 

Joseph. My saddle-girths have given way 
With trudging through the heat to-day ; 
To you I think it is but play 

To ride and hold the boy. 
605 Mary. Hark ! how the robins shout and sing, 
As if to hail their infant King ! 

* That Christ spoke to the Magi from the manger prophesying his death is 
an old tradition founded on the First Infancy of Christ, 1. 3. 

t The gifts of the Magi were gold, as an emblem of royalty ; frankincense, 
in token of Christ's divinity ; and myrrh, in prophetic allusion to his persecu- 
tion and death. In return Christ gave them charity and spiritual riches for 
gold ; perfect faith for their incense ; and truth and meekness of spirit for 
the myrrh. The Virgin gave them the Infant's swaddling clothes. 

X V. First Infancy of Christ, iv. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 93 

I will alight at yonder si)ring 
To wash his little coat. 
Joseph. And I will hobble well the ass, 
610 Lest, being loose iijDon the grass, 
He should escape ; for, by the mass, 
He 's nimble as a goat. 

Here Maky shall alight and go to the spring, 
Maky. O Joseph ! I am much afraid, 
For men are sleeping in the shade ; 
615 I fear that we shall be waylaid, 
And robbed and beaten sore ! 

Here a hand of robbers shall be seen sleeping^ two of whom shall rise 
and come forward.* 

DuMACHUS. Cock's soul ! deliver up your gold ! 
Joseph. I pray you, Sirs, let go your hold ! 
You see that I am weak and old, 
620 Of wealth I have no store. 

DuMACHUS. Give up your money ! 
Titus. Prithee cease. 

Let these good people go in peace. 

DuMACHUS. First let them pay for their re- 
lease, 
825 And then go on their way. 

Titus. These forty groats I give in fee. 
If thou wilt only silent be. 

Mary. May God be merciful to thee 
Upon the Judgment Day ! 
530 Jesus. When thirty years shall have gone by, 
I at Jerusalem shall die, 

* V. First Infancrj of Christy viii, 1-7. 

519. Old. Tradition derived from the Apocryphal Nexo Testament repre- 
sents Joseph as a widower when he espoused Mary. In early art he is very 
old ; later painters make him of middle age. {v. Legend, and Myth. Art, 
162.) 



94 LONGFELLOW. 

By Jewish hands exalted high 

On the accursed tree. 
Then on my right and my left side, 
B35 These thieves shall both be crucified, 
And Titus thenceforth shall abide 
In paradise with me. 

Here a great rumor of trumpets and horses, like the noise of a king 
with his army, and the robbers shall take flight. 

VI. THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS.* 

King Herod. Potz-tausend ! Himmel-sacra- 
ment ! 
Filled am I with great wonderment 
540 At this unwelcome news ! 

Am I not Herod ? Who shall dare 
My crown to take, my sceptre bear, 

As king among the Jews ? 
Here he shall stride up and down and flourish his sword. ^ 
What ho ! I fain would drink a can 
545 Of the strong wine of Canaan ! 

536. Tihis is considered by the Catholic Church the first Christian martyr, 
and is represented in art witli the pahu, the symbol of martyrdom ; his festi- 
val occurs on Innocents' Day, Dec. 28. 

* This was a frequent subject of mediaeval Mysteries. The Holy Innocents, 
although unconscious for whose sake they died, have always been considered 
martyrs. There are no pictures of them in Italian churches previous to the 
latter half of the fifteenth century. After that time, however, such groups 
became common as altar-pieces, because foundling hospitals were tlien estab- 
lished throughout the country, and the churches connected with them were 
naturally decorated with this subject. Innocents' Day was considered in Eng- 
land, from the horror caused by the martyrdom, one of the most unlucky days 
of the year. To marry on Childermas, as the festival was called, was particu- 
larly inauspicious. 

t In the old Miracle-Plays Herod was a favorite personage, and was repre- 
sented as a tyrant of a very overbearing character. Thus Hamlet (iii. 2) says 
that an actor who "tears a passion to tatters" " out-Herods Herod." This 
character of a swaggering, uproarious tyrant, is maintained in the Englkh 
Towneley and Chester Miracle Plays. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 95 

The wine of Helbon bring 
I purchased at the Fair of Tyre, 
As red as blood, as hot as fire. 

And fit for any king ! 

He quaffs great goblets of wine. 

660 Now at the window will I stand, 
While in the street the armed band 

The little children slay : 
The babe just born in Bethlehem 
Will surely slaughtered be with them, 

665 Nor live another day ! 

Here a voice of lamentation shall be heard in the street. 
Rachel. O wicked king ! O cruel speed ! 
To do this most unrighteous deed ! 
My children all are slain ! 
Herod. Ho seneschal ! another cup I 
660 With wine of Sorek fill it up ! 
I would a bumper drain ! 
Rahab. May maledictions fall and blast 
Thyself and lineage, to the last 
Of all thy kith and kin ! 

666 Herod. Another goblet ! quick ! and stir 
Pomegranate juice and drops of myrrh 

And calamus therein ! 

546. Helbon. A village near Damascus, in a coiintry rich in vines and fig- 
trees, {v. Ezekiel xxvii. 18.) 

560. Sorek. A valley near Gaza. The word in Hebrew means a partic- 
ularly choice vine, bearing a grape of dusky color, with a rich, purple juice. 

566. Myrrh. Othello (v. 2) speaks of myrrh, a transparent gum-resin, of 
amber color, and bitter, pungent taste, which exudes from the bark of a tree 
in Abyssinia and Arabia : — 

" Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees 
Their medicinal gum." 

567. Calamus. Sweet-flag, a root of pungent, aromatic taste. The leaves 
have a similar odor, and were used to strew on floors, in place of rushes. 



96 LONGFELLOW. 

Soldiers, in the street. Give up thy child into 
our hands ! 
It is King Herod who commands 
B70 That he should thus be slain ! 

The Nurse Medusa. monstrous men ! What 
have ye done I 
It is King Herod's only son 
That ye have cleft in twain ! 
Herod. Ah, luckless day I What words of fear 
575 Are these that smite upon my ear 
With such a doleful sound! 
What torments rack my heart and head ! 
Would I were dead ! would I were dead, 
And buried in the ground ! 

He falls down and writhes as though eaten by icorms. Hell opens, 
and Satan and Astaroth * come forth, and drag him down. 



VII. JESUS AT PLAY WITH HIS SCHOOLMATES, t 

680 Jesus. The shower is over. Let us play, 
And make some sparrows out of clay, 
Down by the river's side. 

572. Son. Five days before his death Herod ordered the execution of his 
son Antipater, which probably gave rise to the tradition that one of his own 
children perished at Bethlehem. Antipater was then forty years of age. 

* Also called Astarte ; a Phoenician goddess of sensual delights, like Aph< 
rodite, Mylitta of Babylon, and Cybele of Phrygia. As gods and goddesses 
who once ruled over the great phenomena of nature found a refuge in the 
heavenly bodies on losing their mythological divinity, Astaroth came to be, 
like Diana and Isis, identified with the moon, as Baal, the other great Syrian 
divinity, represented the sun. 

" And mooned Astaroth, 
Heaven's queen and mother both." 

Milton's Ode to the Nativity. 
t V. First Infancy of Christ, xv. 1-7, xix. 16-21, and Second Infancy, i. 2-10. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 97 

Judas. See how the stream has overflowed 
Its banks, and o'er the meadow road 
B85 Is spreading far and wide ! 

They draw water out of the river by channels, and form little pools. 
Jesus makes tweltje sparrows of day, and the other hoys do the 
same. 

Jesus. Look ! look ! how prettily I make 
These little sparrows by the lake 

Bend down their necks and drink! 
Now will I make them sing and soar 
B90 So far, they shall return no more 
Unto this river's brink. 

Judas. That canst thou not! They are but 
clay, 
They cannot sing, nor fly away 
Above the meadow lands ! 
B9B Jesus. Fly, fly ! ye sparrows ! you are free ! 
And while you live, remember me, 
Who made you with my hands. 

Here Jesus shall clap his hands, and the sparrows shall fly away, 
chirruping. * 

Judas. Thou art a sorcerer, I know ; 
Oft has my mother told me so, 
600 I will not play with thee ! 

He strikes Jesus on the right side, t 
Jesus. Ah, Judas ! thou hast smote my side, 
And when I shall be crucified, 
There shall I pierced be ! 

Here Joseph shall come in and say : 
Joseph. Ye wicked boys ! why do ye play, 
60B And break the holy Sabbath day ? 

* First Infancy of Christ, xix. 19. 
t First Infancy of Christ, xiv. 4-10. 
7 



98 LONGFELLOW. 

What, think ye, will your mothers say 

To see you in such plight ! 
In such a sweat and such a heat, 
With all that mud upon your feet ! 
610 There 's not a, beggar in the street 
Makes such a sorry sight ! 



VIII. THE VILLAGE SCHOOL.* 

The Rabbi Ben Israel,! with a long heard ^ sitting on a high stool, 
with a rod in his hand. 

Rabbi. I am the Rabbi Ben Israel, 
Throughout this village known full well, 
And, as my scholars all will tell, 
61B Learned in things divine ; 

The Cabala and Talmud hoar 

* V. First Infancy of Christ, xx. 

t The rabbis were the teachers of the Jewish people. It was reqmred that 
a child should begin to leam the law by heart at five years of age. In school 
the pupils sat on benches or on the floor, the rabbi on a raised seat, called the 
" Seat of Moses." The form of teaching was by question and answer, as here. 
As knowledge of the law was traditional, teacher and scholar alike depended 
upon memory. To forget a word once learned was an unpardonable crime on 
the part of the pupil. 

616. Cabala. A collection of doctrine given to the Hebrews by oral tradi- 
tion from God to Moses, hence to Aaron, and so on, and serving as an inter- 
pretation of the hidden sense of Scripture. As every Hebrew letter represents 
a number, each word has a nmnerical value, and for it any other word can be 
substituted having the same value. This system opened the door to an un- 
bounded mysticism, as a secret meaning was attributed to every word of Scrip- 
ture, to which the CabaUsts alone had the key. Their books date from the 
ninth to the fourteenth centuries A. d., and combine the teachings of the Tal- 
mud with the Alexandrian or Neo-Platonic philosophy. 

616. Tabnud. The body of Hebrew laws, traditions, and explanations of 
duty, derived from Scripture or tradition. Its compilation began with the 
return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, and was carried on by the 
scribes until 200 b. c. It consists of two parts, of which the first, the Mishna, 
is the text, and the second, the Gemara, a commentary upon it. {v. LittelVs 
Living Age, xcvi. 18, and cxlii. 195.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 99 

Than all the prophets prize I more, 
For water is all Bible lore, 
But Mishna is strong wine. 

620 My fame extends from West to East, 
And always, at the Purim feast, 
I am as drunk as any beast 
That wallows in his sty ; 
The wine it so elateth me, 
625 That I no difference can see 

Between " Accursed Haman be ! '* 
And " Blessed be Mordecai ! " 

Come hither, Judas Iscariot ; 
Say, if thy lesson thou hast got 
630 From the Rabbinical Book or not. 
Why howl the dogs at night ? 
Judas. In the Rabbinical Book, it saith 
The dogs howl, when with icy breath 
Great Sammael, the Angel of Death, 
635 Takes through the town his flight ! 

619. Wine. Some rabbis said that the Bible was like water, the Mishna 
like wine, and the Gemara like spiced wine. 

621. Purim. A Persian word, meaning lot; hence the Feast of Lots, insti- 
tuted to commemorate the deliverance of the Jews from the machinations of 
Haman. At this feast the entire book of Esther was read to keep alive the 
memory of the great event. At every mention of the name of Haman the 
children raised cries of anger, while the elders stamped on the floor, imprecat- 
ing the curse : " Let his name be blotted out. The name of the wicked shall 
perish." {v. Stanley's Jewish Church, ch. xlv.) 

627. Mordecai. The Gemara directs Jews to become so intoxicated on this 
feast that they cannot perceive the difference between " Blessed be Mordecai ! " 
and " Cursed be Haman ! " 

634. Sammael. The Hebrew Evil Spirit, the Serpent, and, by derivation, the 
Angel of Death, corresponding to the Teutonic Wild Huntsman, {v. Con- 
way's Demonology, part iv. ch. 12, 22, 26.) The name reappears in the Ger- 
man Zamiel, the Black Huntsman, who is present at the casting of the magic 
bullet, accompanied by his aerial cavalcade, as in the opera of Der FreiscMUz. 



100 L ONGFELL W. 

Rabbi. "Well, boy ! now say, if thou art wise, 
AVhen the Aiigel of Death, who is full of eyes, 
Comes where a sick man dying lies, 
What doth he to the wight ? 
640 Judas. He stands beside him, dark and tall, 

Holding a sword, from which doth fall 
Into his mouth a drop of gall, 

And so he turneth white. 
Rabbi. And now, my Judas, say to me 
646 What the great Voices Four may be. 
That quite across the world do flee, 
And are not heard by men ? 
Judas. The Voice of the Sun in heaven's 
dome, 
The Voice of the Murmuring of Rome, 
660 The Voice of a Soul that goetli home, 
And the Angel of the Rain ! 
Rabbi. Right are thine answers every one ! 
Now little Jesus, the carpenter's son, 
Let us see how thy task is done, 
666 Canst thou thy letters say ? 

The rabbis taught that the howliug of dogs indicated the approach of the An- 
gel of Death. This superstition, which still exists in England, also comes from 
the Romans (v. Virgil's Georgics, i. 70), and from the Aryan mythology, which 
represents a dog as summoning the departing soul. It was an omen of misfor- 
tune as well as of death, {v. III. Henry VI. v. 6.) 

637. The Angel of Death is represented in the Talmud as standing at the head 
of the dying man, with a drawn sword in his hand, on the point of which is a 
drop of gall. When the dying man sees it he shudders and opens his mouth, 
into which the drop falls. He then dies and turns pale, and when the soul, after 
flying around the body for three days, sees the face changed, it goes away. In 
other legends Asrael presents a cup containing gall ; hence the symbolical use 
of the word "cup" for death {S(. Matt, xxvi, 39), and the expression "to 
taste of death." 

645. Voices Four. The Talmud teaches that there are three voices that 
can be heard from one end of the world to the other, — the voice of the sim as 
he rolls in his orbit, the hum and din of the city of Rome, and the cry of the 
soul as it leaves the body. The rabbis, however, prayed for mercy on the 
soul, and this voice has ceased. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 101 

Jesus. Aleph. 

Rabbi. What next ? Do not stop yet ! 

Go on with all the alphabet. 
Come, Aleph, Beth ; dost thou forget ? 
660 Cock's soul ! thou 'dst rather play ! 

Jesus. What Aleph means I fain would know, 
Before I any farther go ! 

Rabbi. O, by Saint Peter ! wouldst thou so ? 

Come hither, boy, to me. 
665 As surely as the letter Jod 

Once cried aloud, and spake to God, 
So surely shalt thou feel this rod, 

And punished shalt thou be ! 

Here Rabbi Ben Israel shall lift up his rod to strike Jesus, and 
his right arm shall be paralyzed. 



IX. CROWNED WITH FLOWERS.* 

Jesus sitting among his playmates crowned with flowers as their 
King. 

Boys. We spread our garments on the 
ground ! 
670 With fragrant flowers thy head is crowned, 

656. Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, means an ox or bullock, 
because its form in the ancient Phoenician alphabet bore a rude likeness to the 
head of that animal. As a numeral its value is one, and the Cabalists taught 
that it denoted the Spirit of God. 

665. Jod. The tenth and smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, corre- 
sponding to the Greek iota ; as in St. Matthew v. 18, where it represents the 
smallest possible comparison. The legend relates that the letter Jod (Yod) 
cried to God because it was so small that it feared it would be lost or over- 
looked. The Apocryphal New Testament represents the child Jesus explain- 
ing to the rabbi the meaning of the letters, {v. First and Second Infancy of 
Christ.) 

* V. First Infancy of Christy xviii. 



102 LONGFELLOW. 

While like a guard we stand around, 

And hail thee as our King ! 
Thou art the new King of the Jews ! 
Nor let the passers-by refuse 
676 To bring that homage which men use 

To majesty to bring. 

Here a traveller shall go by, and the boys shall lay hold of his gar- 
ments and say : 

Boys. Come hither ! and all reverence pay 
Unto our monarch, crowned to-day! 
Then go rejoicing on your way, 
680 In all prosperity ! 

Traveller. Hail to the King of Bethlehem, 
Who weareth in his diadem 
The yellow crocus for the gem 
Of his authority ! 
He passes by ; and others come in, bearing on a litter a sick child. 
685 Boys. Set down the litter and draw near ! 

The King of Bethlehem is here ! 
What ails the child, who seems to fear 
That we shall do him harm ? 
The Bearers. He climbed up to the robin's 
nest, 
690 And out there darted, from his rest, 
A serpent with a crimson crest, 
And stung him in the arm. 
Jesus. Bring him to me, and let me feel 
The wounded place ; my touch can heal 
696 The sting of serpents, and can steal 
The poison from the bite ! 
He touches the wound, and the boy begins to cry. 
Cease to lament ! I can foresee 
That thou hereafter known shalt be, 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 103 



Among the men who follow me, 
700 As Simon the Canaanite ! 



EPILOGUE. 

In the after part of the day- 
Will be represented another play, 
Of the Passion of our Blessed Lord, 
Beginning directly after Nones I 
T06 At the close of which we shall accord, 
By way of benison and reward. 
The sight of a holy Martyr's bones ! 

IV. 

THE ROAD TO HIRSCHAU. 
Prince Henry and Elsie, with their attendants^ on horseback. 

Elsie. Onward and onward the highway runs to 
the distant city, impatientl}'- bearing 
Tidings of human joy and disaster, of love and of 
hate, of doing and daring ! 

703. Passion. Passion-plays and Easter-plays were sometimes united into 
one, extending from the Baptism of Clirist to the Outpouring of the Holy 
Spirit. In the fifteenth century these plays often attained a length of 8,000 
lines ; they went on for three or four days, and as many as three hundred peo- 
ple took part in them : as in that of Ober-Ammergau, one of the few survivors 
of mediaeval realism. 

704. Nones. The fifth canonical hour, about three o'clock in the afternoon. 
707. 3Iartijr\<; bones. The crusaders and pilgrims had brouglit home great 

numbers of sacred relics and the bones of martyred saints, and so great was 
the faith of the Middle Ages that there was scarcely a town that could not 
show some relic tliat had cured the sick, or some image that had opened and 
shut its eyes, like that of Benevento. (v. p. 150.) The shrine of a noted saint 
was often placed in the Presbytery, behind the high altar, where, as well as in 
the choir aisles, were frequently set up the monuments of ecclesiastics and 
distinguished benefactors. 



104 LONGFELLOW. 

Prince Hexry. This life of ours is a wild seolian 
harp of many a joyous strain, 
But under them all there runs a loud perpetual wail, 
as of souls in pain. 
6 Elsie. Faith alone can interpret life, and the 
heart that aches and bleeds with the stigma 
Of pain, alone bears the likeness of Christ, and can 
comprehend its dark enigma. 
Prince Henry. Man is selfish, and seeketh 
pleasure with little care of what may betide 
Else why am I travelling here beside thee, a demon 
that rides by an angel's side ? 
Elsie. All the hedges are white with dust, and 
the great dog under the creaking wain 
10 Hangs his head in the lazy heat, while onward the 
horses toil and strain. 
Prince Henry. Now they stop at the wayside 
inn, and the wagoner laughs with the landlord's 
daughter, 
While out of the dripping trough the horses distend 
their leathern sides with water. 
Elsie. All through life there are wayside inns, 
where man may refresh his soul with love ; 
Even the lowest may quench his thirst at rivulets fed 
by springs from above. 
16 Prince Henry. Yonder, where rises the cross 
of stone, our journey along the highway ends, 

6. Christ. An allusion to the legend of the handkerchief or sndarhim of St. 
Veronica, which received the impression of the Saviour's face. {v. Baring- 
Gould's Lives of the Saints, July, 287.) 

15. Cross. Often set up and still seen in Europe where ways meet or wher- 
ever the attention of the traveller would be arrested ; as Wynken de Words 
said in 1496 ; " For this reason ben Crosses by ye waye, that whan folke pass- 
ynge see the Crosses, they sholde thynke on Hym that deyed on ye Crosse, 
and worshyppe Hym above all thynge." The modern sign-post has taken the 
shape and place of the cross. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 105 

And over the fields, by a bridle path, down into the 
broad green valley descends. 
Elsie. I am not sorry to leave behind the beaten 
road with its dust and heat ; 
The air will be sweeter far, and the turf will be 
softer under our horses' feet. 
They turn down a green lane. 
Elsie. Sweet is the air with the budding haws, 
and the valley stretching for miles below 
20 Is white with blossoming cherry - trees, as if just 
covered with lightest snow. 
Prince Henry. Over our heads a white cascade 
is gleaming against the distant hill ; 
We cannot hear it, nor see it move, but it hangs like 
a banner when winds are still. 
Elsie. Damp and cool is this deep ravine, and 
cool the sound of the brook by our side ! 
"What is this castle that rises above us, and lords it 
over a land so wide ? 
25 Prince Henry. It is the home of the Counts of 
Calva ; well have I known these scenes of old, 
Well I remember each tower and turret, remember 
the brooklet, the wood, and the wold. 
Elsie. Hark ! from the little village below us the 
bells of the church are rinoins: for rain ! 
Priests and peasants in long procession conne forth 
and kneel on the arid plain. 
Prince Henry. They have not long to wait, for 
I see in the south uprising a little cloud, 

27. Rain. It was believed that rain was under the control of the beneficent 
spirits, while storm and thunder, hail and lightning, were subject to malevo- 
lent demons, in the midst of which they hurried through the air, as in the 
Prologue. Thus Lucifer appears to Prince Henry in a flash of lightning (v. 
p. 13) ; and thunder is called " the Devil's own and only prayer." (p. 116.) 



106 LONGFELLOW. 

80 That before the sun shall be set will cover the sky 
above us as with a shroud. 

They pass on. 



THE COm^NT OF HIRSCHAU IN THE BLACK 
FOREST.* 

The Convent cellar. '\ Fkiar Glaus comes in with a light and a 
basket of empty Jiagons. 

Friar Claus. I always enter this sacred place 
With a thoughtful, solemn, and reverent pace, 
Pausing long enough on each stair 
To breathe an ejaculatory prayer, 
30 And a benediction on the vines 

That produce these various sorts of wines ! 

For my part, I am well content 
That we have got through with the tedious Lent ! 
Fasting is all very well for those 
40 Who have to contend with invisible foes ; 



* Near the modern town of Hirsau, on the Nagold, a branch of the Neckar, 
in Wurtemberg, are the ruins of the Benedictine abbey of Hirschau, founded 
by a count of Calw, or Calva, in 830, secularized at the Reformation, and 
destroyed by the French in 1692. It reached its greatest fame under the 
rule of the Abbot William in the eleventh century. A full account of it may 
be found in Maitland's Dark Ages, and Montalembert's 3Ionks of the West, vi. 

t One of the most important oflBcials of a convent under the abbot, called 
ohedientiarii, was the cellarer, who was the steward of the house. He had 
the care of everything relating to the provision of the food and vessels of the 
convent, was exempt from the observance of some of the services in church, 
had the use of horses and servants for the performance of his duties, and 
sometimes separate apartments. 

38. Lent. In Old Englisli lenfen, A. S. lencten, the Spring, because at that 
season the days begin to lengthen. A forty days' fast, instituted in the second 
century, in commemoration of that of Christ when under temptation, called 
in French careme from quadragesima. To secure a uniformity which had not 
hitherto existed, Gregory I. ordained that it should begin on Ash Wednesday. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 107 

But I am quite sure it does not agree 
With a quiet, peaceable man like me, 
Who am not of that nervous and meagre kind 
That are always distressed in body and mind! 

45 And at times it really does me good 
To come down among this brotherhood, 
Dwelling forever under ground. 
Silent, contemplative, round and sound ; 
Each one old, and brown with mould, 

50 But filled to the lips with the ardor of youth, 
With the latent power and love of truth, 
And with virtues fervent and manifold. 

I have heard it said, that at Easter-tide, 

When buds are swelling on every side, 
66 And the sap begins to move in the vine, 

Then in all cellars, far and wide. 

The oldest, as well as the newest, wine 

Begins to stir itself, and ferment. 

With a kind of revolt and discontent 
60 At being so long in darkness pent, 

And fain would burst from its sombre tun 

To bask on the hill-side in the sun ; 

As in the bosom of us poor friars, 

The tumult of half-subdued desires 
65 For the world that we have left behind 

Disturbs at times all peace of mind ! 

And now that we have lived through Lent, 

My duty it is, as often before. 

To open awhile the prison- door, 
70 And give these restless spirits vent. 

Now here is a cask that stands alone, 
And has stood a hundred years or more, 



108 LONGFELLOW. 

Its beard of cobwebs, long and hoar, 

Trailing and sweeping along the floor, 
75 Like Barbarossa, who sits in his cave. 

Taciturn, sombre, sedate, and grave, 

Till his beard has grown through the table of stone ! 

It is of the quick and not of the dead ! 

In its veins the blood is hot and red, 
80 And a heart still beats in those ribs of oak 

That time may have tamed, but has not broke ! 

It comes from Bacharach on the Rhine, 

Is one of the three best kinds of wine, 

And costs some hundred florins the ohm ; 
85 But that I do not consider dear, 

When I remember that every year 

Four butts are sent to the Pope of Rome. 

And whenever a goblet thereof I drain, 

75. Barbarossa. The legend of enchanted sleep was really believed of Fred- 
erick II., dying in Italy, far away from his northern subjects, who thought 
that he would come again at the head of an army to reform the Church. Un- 
til then, however, he was supposed to sleep in the Kyffhauser cave, or in the 
Untersberg near Salzburg, sitting at a stone table which his beard envelops. 
If any one approaches him he asks if the ravens are still flying round the 
mountain. If so he must sleep another hundred years. It was not till much 
later that the sleeping emperor was supposed to be Frederick Barbarossa. 
The ravens connect him with Odin, whose two ravens, Hugin and Munin 
(Thought and Memory), constantly accompanied him, and whispered in his ear 
words of coimsel. {v. Keary's Outlines, 489.) 

82. Bacharach. The name is slightly altered from Bacchi-ara, " the altar 
of Bacchus," applied to a rock in the bed of the Rhine, opposite the town, 
usually covered with water, but in very dry seasons appearing above the sur- 
face, when a good vintage is thereby predicted. To the sixteenth century 
Bacharach was one of the greatest wine marts on the river. 

84. Florin. The present florin is worth about fifty cents, but in the Middle 
Ages its value was at least five times as great. It was so called from Florence, 
where it was first coined, as the ducat, the first gold coin of Italy, from the 
dukes of Milan. The ohm is a German measure, containing a tierce, or forty 
gallons. A tun of the wine of Bacharach was annually sent to Pope Pius II. 
(1405-1464), who under a previous pontificate had been nuncio to Germany. 
The town of Nuremberg purchased its freedom by a yearly tribute of four tuns 
of the same wine to the Emperor Wenceslas (1361-1419). 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 109 

The old rhyme keeps running in my brain : 
90 At Bacharach on the Rhine, 

At Hochheim on the Main, 
And at Wiirzburg on the Stein, 
Grow the three best kinds of wine ! 

They are all good wines, and better far 
96 Than those of the Neckar, or those of the Ahr. 

In particular, Wiirzburg well may boast 

Of its blessed wine of the Holy Ghost, 

Which of all wines I like the most. 

This I shall draw for the Abbot's drinking, 
100 Who seems to be much of my way of thinking. 
Fills a flagon. 

Ah ! how the streamlet laughs and sings ! 

What a delicious fragrance springs 

From the deep flagon, while it fills. 

As of hyacinths and daffodils ! 
105 Between this cask and the Abbot's lips 

Many have been the sips and slips ; 

Many have been the draughts of wine. 

On their way to his, that have stopped at mine ; 

And many a time my soul has hankered 
110 For a deep draught out of his silver tankard. 

When it should have been busy with other affairs, 

89. Old rhyme. It first appeared in the Musikalische Kurzweil, of Nu- 
remberg, 1623 : — 

" Zu Klingenberg am Main, 
Zu Wiirzburg an dem Stein, 
Zu Bacharach am Rhein, 
Hab' ich in meinen Tagen 
Gar oftmals horen sagen, 
Soll'n sein die besten Wein'." 
91. Hochheim. From Hochheim, near the Main, comes the wine which 
formerly gave a name to all Rhine wine, — hock. Steinwein, even now called 
" Holy Ghost's wine," is grown on the steep vineyards above Wiirzburg. 



110 LONGFELLOW. 

Less with its longings and more with its prayers. 

But now there is no such awkward condition, 

No danger of death and eternal perdition ; 
115 So here 's to the Abbot and Brothers all, 

Who dwell in this convent of Peter and Paul! 
He drinks. 

O cordial delicious ! O soother of pain ! 

It flashes like sunshine into my brain ! 

A benison rest on the Bishop who sends 
120 Such a f udder of wine as this to his friends ! 

And now a flagon for such as may ask 

A draught from the noble Bacharach cask, 

And I will be gone, though I know full well 

The cellar 's a cheerfuUer place than the cell. 
126 Behold where he stands, all sound and good, 

Brown and old in his oaken hood ; 

Silent he seems externally "* 

As any Carthusian monk may be ; 

116. Peter and Paul. Dedicated to these saints. A convent is the name 
applied to the body of individuals who composed a religious community. These 
were the cloister monks, lay and clerical ; the professed brethren, vi^ho were 
also lay and clerical ; the clerks, the novices, and the servants and artisans. 
The whole convent was under the government of the abbot, who was bound 
to govern according to the rule of the order. 

120. Fudder. English fodder, from the German fuder, a measure for wine, 
containing six ohms. 

124. Cell. Nothing was more characteristic of mediaeval churchmen than 
the habit of making puns, even on serious subjects, as Gregory the Great's 
Non Angli sed Anrjeli, and several others, given in Freeman's Old English 
History, 44. The Dominicans were often painted as black and white dogs, 
domini canes, " the Lord's watch-dogs," as they loved to be called. 

128. Carthusian. Tlie Carthusian order, a reformed branch of the Benedic- 
tines, was founded by St. Bruno in 1084 at Chartreux, near Grenoble, in 
France (in Italian Certosn : English, The Charter-house), the parent house be- 
ing called la grande Chartreuse, giving its name to the liqueur distilled by the 
monks from plants, of which they alone have the secret. Their rule was the 
most severe of any ; the monks fasted eight months of the year ; flesh was 
forbidden at all times ; they ate but one meal a day, separately and in silence, 
except on certain festivals ; and convei-sation was allowed but once a week. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. HI 

But within, what a spirit of deep unrest ! 
130 What a seetliing and simmering in his breast ! 

As if the heaving of his great heart 

Would burst his belt of oak apart I 

Let me unloose this button of wood, 

And quiet a little his turbulent mood. 
Sets it running. 
136 See ! how its currents gleam and shine, 

As if they had caught the purple hues 

Of autumn sunsets on the Rhine, 

Descending and mingling with the dews ; 

Or as if the grapes were stained with the blood 
140 Of the innocent boy, who, some years back, 

Was taken and crucified by the Jews, 

In that ancient town of Bacharach ; 

Perdition upon those infidel Jews, 

In that ancient town of Bacharach ! 
146 The beautiful town, that gives us wine 

With the fragrant odor of Muscadine ! 

I should deem it wrong to let this pass 

Without first touching my lips to the glass, 

For here in the midst of the current I stand, 
150 Like the stone Pfalz in the midst of the river. 



They were the first and greatest horticulturists of Europe, and on this account 
the parent house was spared from confiscation by the French government in 
1880. 

140. Boy. In 1286 a boy named Wern3r was said to have been crucified 
by Jews in Oberwesel, on the Rhine. His body miraculously ascended the 
stream to Bacharach, where it was buried, and a church named St. Werner's 
was built in 1293, in commemoration of the canonized victim. As similar 
stories are told of other localities, as Gloucester and Lincoln in England, they 
were probably invented to palliate the universal persecution of the Jews pre- 
vious to the fifteenth century. 

150. Pfalz. A small liexagonal castle on a rock in the Rhine, opposite 
Caub, below Bacharach, built by Louis the Bavarian about the beginning of 
the thirteenth century, as a toll-house for exacting tribute from passing ves- 



112 LONGFELLOW. 

Taking toll upon either hand, 

And much more grateful to the giver. 
He drinks. 

Here, now, is a very inferior kind, 

Such as in any town you may find, 
155 Such as one might imagine vrould suit 

The rascal who drank wine out of a boot. 

And, after all, it was not a crime, 

For he won thereby Dorf Hiiffelsheim. 

A jolly old toper ! who at a pull 
160 Could drink a postilion's jack-boot full, 

And ask with a laugh, when that was done, 

If the fellow had left the other one ! 

This wine is as good as we can afford 

To the friars, who sit at the lower board, 
165 And cannot distinguish bad from good, 

And are far better off than if they could, 

Being rather the rude disciples of beer 

Than of anything more refined and dear ! 
Fills the other f agon and departs. 

sels. Under the castle, which is only accessible by a portcullis several feet 
above the rock, are dungeons in which state-prisoners were confined. 

158. Huffelsheim. The hero of this legend was Boos von Waldeck, who 
won the village of Hlilfelsheim, as described, from the Counts of the Rhine, 
the ruins of whose castle, Rheingrafenstein, may still be seen on the Nahe, 
above Kreuznach, not far from Bingen. The story has been versified by 
Gustav Pfarrius, Der Trunk aus dem Stiefel. (v. Echtemayer's Ausumhl Deut- 
scher Gedichte, 108 ; also, The Ehine, from its Source to the Sea, 210. ) 

164. Friars. Abbot William of Hirschau was the first in Germany to join 
to his congregation neophytes without any clerical character, called lay broth- 
ers, to whom were assigned functions connected with secular life and the 
mechanical arts ; they were the tailors, shoemakers, and carpenters of the ab- 
beys, but wore the monastic dress. Others were employed in building, clear- 
ing forests, and tending the sick in the monastic infirmaries, and wore their 
secular dress. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 113 



THE SCRIPTORIUM.* 

Friar Pacificus transcribing and illuminating. 

Friar Pacificus. It is growing dark ! Yet one 
line more, 
170 And then my work for to-day is o'er. 
I come again to the name of the Lord ! 
Ere I that awful name record, 
That is spoken so lightly among xaQn, 
Let me pause awhile, and wash my pen ; 
175 Pure from blemish and blot must it be 
When it writes that word of mystery 

Thus have I labored on and on, 

Nearly through the Gospel of John. 

Can it be that from the lips 
180 Of this same gentle Evangelist, 

That Christ himself perhaps has kissed, 

Came the dread Apocalypse ! 

It has a very awful look, 

As it stands there at the end of the book, 
186 Like the sun in an eclipse. 

* The Scriptorium was a large room in monasteries, particularly those of the 
Benedictine order, devoted to the transcription and illumination of manuscript 
books. Small rooms or cells were also occupied for this purpose by monks 
who were considered to deserve the privilege. In France, 40,000 copj^sts were 
at work in the monasteries during the twelfth century, {v. Maitland's Dark 
Ages, 404.) 

174. Pen. Transcription was performed with a reed shaped into a pen. 
QuiU pens were in use before the seventh century, when they are first men- 
tioned, by St, Isidore of Seville, and even metal pens were not imknown to the 
Romans. 

176. Mystery. The Hebrews, either by a false interpretation of texts, as 
Exodus X. 7, and Levit. xxiv. 16, or following some ancient superstition, re- 
garded the name of Jehovah as too sacred to be uttered. They therefore sub- 
stituted for it in reading the sacred text the word Adonai, Lord. 



114 LONGFELLOW. 

Ah me ! when I think of that vision divine, 
Think of writing it, line by line, 
I stand in awe of the terrible curse, 
Like the trump of doom, in the closing verse ? 
190 God forgive me ! if ever I 

Take aught from the book of that Prophecy, 
Lest my part too should be taken away 
From the Book of Life on the Judgment Day. 

Tliis is well written, though I say it ! 

195 I should not be afraid to display it, 
In open day, on the selfsame shelf 
With the writings of Saint Thecla herself, 
Or of Theodosius, who of old 
Wrote the Gospels in letters of gold ! 

200 That goodly folio standing yonder, 
Without a single blot or blunder. 
Would not bear away the palm from mine, 
If we should compare them line for line. 

There, now, is an initial letter ! 
205 Saint Ulric himself never made a better ! 
Finished down to the leaf and the snail, 

197. St. Thecla. The first female martyr of the Greek Church, persecuted 
for her devotion to St. Paul. Her history is told in the apocryphal gospel of 
St. Paul and Thecla. 

198. Theodosius. Theodosius II., emperor of the East (a. p. 401-450), was 
called the Calligrapher, from his taste for illumination, and the third of tliat 
name, here referred to, reigned one year, 717, and retired to a monastery at 
Ephesus, where he spent the rest of liis life writing the Gospels in golden let- 
ters and ornamenting them with paintings. 

205. St. Ulric. A Bavarian of high rank, who became a monk of Cluny in 
France ; celebrated for his gift of instruction and consolation, and was con- 
stantly employed in founding monasteries ; a friend of Abbot William of 
Hirschau, whom he visited, and for whom he wrote two books on the disci- 
pline of Cluny, which was a reform of the Benedictine rule ; died 1093. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND, 115 

Down to the eyes on the peacock's tail ! 

And now, as I turn the vohime over, 

And see what lies between cover and cover, 
210 What treasures of art these pages hold, 

All ablaze with crimson and gold, 

God forgive me ! I seem to feel 

A certain satisfaction steal 

Into my heart, and into my brain, 
21B As if my talent had not lain 

Wrapped in a napkin, and all in vain. 

Yes, I might almost say to the Lord, 

Here is a copy of thy Word, 

Written out with much toil and pain ; 
220 Take it, Lord, and let it be 

As something I have done for thee ! * 
He looks from the window. 

How sweet the air is ! How fair the scene ! 

I wish I had as lovely a green 

To paint my landscapes and my leaves ! 
225 How the swallows twitter under the eaves ! 

* Such sentences were often written at the close of their work by monkish 
copyists, with others " expressing joy, humility, remorse ; entreating the read- 
er's prayers and pardon for the writer's sins ; and sometimes pronouncing a 
malediction on any one who should steal the book." (Author's note.) 

225. Swalloics. " Sometimes the copyist's work," sayg Cutts, in Scenes and 
Characters of the Middle Ages, "was carried on in the cloister, which, being 
glazed, would be a very comfortable place in summer, with its coolness and 
quiet, and the peep through its windows on the green court and the fountain 
in the centre, and the gray walls of the monastic buildings beyond." Copying 
was often a penitential exercise however, as the monks worked in silence and 
without a fire, even amid intense cold. (v. Maitland's Dark Ages, 404.) The 
art of illumination, or of painting on manuscript, is of Egyptian origin, and 
was known to the Greeks and Romans, the rescripts of the Roman emperors 
being traced in gold and silver letters on sheets of purple color. When the 
embellishments of illuminated capital letters, designs, and arabesques, led to 
the introduction of painting upon manuscripts, two artists were generally em- 
ployed on the same work, the scribe and the painter. After the establishment 
of the Christian religion the art of illumination was used exclusively for the 



116 LONGFELLOW. 

There, now, there is one in her nest ; 

I can just catch a glimpse of her head and breast, 

And will sketch her thus, in her quiet nook, 

For the margin of my Gospel book. 
He makes a sketch. 
230 I can see no more. Through the valley yonder 

A shower is passing ; I hear the thunder 

Mutter its curses in the air, 

The Devil's own and only prayer ! 

The dusty road is brown with rain, 
235 And, speeding on with might and main, 

Hitherward rides a gallant train. 

They do not parley, they cannot wait, 

But hurry in at the convent gate. 

What a fair lady ! and beside her 
240 What a handsome, graceful, noble rider ! 

Now she gives him her hand to alight ; 

They will beg a shelter for the night. 

I will go down to the corridor, 

And try to see that face once more ; 
245 It will do for the face of some beautiful Saint, 

Or for one of the Maries I shall paint. 
Goes out. 

Scriptures, the writings of the Fathers, and liturgical works, and was intro- 
duced to Western monasteries by the anchorites of the East. Italian paint- 
ers, like Cimabue, Giotto, and Fra Angelico, were distinguished illuminators, 
and the perfection of the art was contemporary with that of painting in 
general. For fac-similes of illuminated manuscripts, v. Lacroix, Le Moyen 
Age, ii. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 117 

THE CLOISTERS.* 
The Abbot Ernestus pacing to andfroA 
Abbot. Slowly, slowly up the wall 

Steals the sunshine, steals the shade ; • 

Evening damps begin to fall, 
250 Evening shadows are disi3layed. 

Round me, o'er me, everywhere, 

All the sky is grand with clouds, 

And athwart the evening air 

Wheel the swallows home in crowds. 
255 Shafts of sunshine from the west 

Paint the dasky windows red ; 

Darker shadows, deeper rest, 

Underneath and overhead. 

Darker, darker, and more wan, 
280 In my breast the shadows fall ; 

Upward steals the life of man, 

As the sunshine from the wall. 

From the wall into the sky, 

* The cloister court was a quadrangular space of greensward, around which 
were arranged the monastic buildings, the church, the chapter-house, the re- 
fectory, and the dormitory. It generally liad a covered walli around its four 
sides, with an open arcade on the side facing the court. The blank wall op- 
posite was sometimes painted witli Scriptural or historical scenes. This walk 
was not merely a promenade for the monks ; it was the place in which the 
convent assembled regularly every day, at certain hours, for study and medita- 
tion. 

t The abbot did not live in common \vith his monks ; he had a separate estab- 
lishment within the monastic precincts, sometimes over the entrance gate. 
His duty was set to the monks an example of observance of the rule and to 
punish breaches of it ; to attend the services in the church when not pre- 
vented by other duties ; to preach on holy days to the people ; and to act as 
confessor to the monks, with the care of the property and estates of the 
abbey. His ordinary habit was the same as that of his monks. In processions 
he held his crosier, and wore, if he were a mitred abbot, his mitre. The ab- 
bots of the greater houses were powerful noblemen, and in England were mem- 
bers of the House of Lords until the abolition of monasteries by Henry VIII. 



118 LONGFELLOW. 

From the roof along the spire ; 
265 Ah, the souls of those that die 
Are but sunbeams lifted higher. 

J^nter Prince Henry. 
Prixce Henry. Christ is arisen ! 
Abbot. Amen ! he is arisen ! 

His peace be with you ! 
270 Prince Henry. Here it reigns forever ! 

The peace of God, that passeth understanding, 
Reigns in these cloisters and these corridors. 
Are you Ernestus, Abbot of the convent ? 
Abbot. I am. 
276 Prince Henry. And I Prince Henry of Hohe- 
neck, 
Who crave your hospitality to-night. 
Abbot. You are thrice welcome to our humble 
walls. 
You do us honor ; and we shall requite it, 
I fear, but poorly, entertaining you 
280 With Paschal eggs, and our poor convent wine, 
The remnants of our Easter holidays. 

267. Arisen. The Easter salutation is used during the Octave of Easter, 
sometimes called Easter-tide. Secular and sacred labor occupy seven days, 
on the eighth the Lord arose ; hence the octave, or period of eight days, was 
applied to the solemnities of religious festivals. 

276. Hospitality. The usual regulation in convents was that the abbot 
should entertain the guests of gentle degree, while the convent received all 
others who might apply. The abbot's house was erected wherever was most 
convenient in the abbey enclosure. That at Fountains, in England, had a hall 
170 feet long by 70 feet wide, and one abbot is known to have given a feast to 
three or four thousand people at once. 

280. Paschal eggs. The Jews used eggs in the Passover, and the Persians 
in keeping the solar festival in March made presents of colored eggs. From 
a Christian point of view eggs are emblematic of the resurrection and the 
future life. They were painted red or yellow in derivation from the pagan 
fires, which were lighted in honor of the sun, and kept burning all night on 
the great festivals in the spring, midsummer, and at Yule-tide. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 119 

Prustce Henry. How fares it with the holy monks 
of Hirschau ? 
Are all things well with them ? 
Abbot. All things are well. 

285 Prince Henry. A noble convent ! I have known 
it long 
By the report of travellers. I now see 
Their commendations lag behind the truth. 
You lie here in the valley of the Nagold 
As in a nest : and the still river, gliding 
290 Along its bed, is like an admonition 

How all things pass. Your lands are rich and ample, 
And your revenues large. God's benediction 
Rests on your convent. 
Abbot. By our charities 

295 We strive to merit it. Our Lord and Master, 
When he departed, left us in his will, 
As our best legacy on earth, the poor ! 
These we have always with us ; had we not, 
Our hearts would grow as hard as are these stones. 
300 Prince Henry. If I remember right, the Counts 
of Calva 
Founded your convent. 

289. Nest. Tlie orders of the Benedictine family preferred sites as secluded 
and remote from towns as possible, and it was the general custom in the 
Middle Ages to choose low and sheltered spots for habitations that were not 
intended for strongholds. To the monks the neighborhood of a stream, as 
here, was of special importance, supplying fish for the table and water-power 
for their mill. The valley, also, supported their flocks and cattle. 

292. Revenues. From the eighth to the thirteenth century almost all the 
monasteries of Europe were founded by nobles, who endowed them with large 
grants of land, often as acts of penitence ; so that in the eleventh century one 
half of the lands and wealth of Germany was in the hands of churchmen. 
(Bryce's Holy Roman Empire, 128.) 

297. The poor. At Hirschau 200 persons were daily fed at the doors ; on 
certain festivals 900 received assistance. At Cluny 17,000 poor were annually 
fed. 



120 LONGFELLOW. 

Abbot. Even as you say. 

Prince Henry. And, if I err not, it is very old.* 

Abbot. Within these cloisters lie already buried 
306 Twelve holy Abbots. Underneath the flags 
On which we stand, the Abbot William lies, 
Of blessed memory. 

Prince Henry. And whose tomb is that, 
Which bears the brass escutcheon ? 
310 Abbot. A benefactor's. 

Conrad, a Count of Calva, he who stood 
Godfather to our bells. 

Prince Henry. Your monks are learned 

And holy men, I trust. 
316 Abbot. There are among them 

Learned and holy men. Yet in this age 
We need another Hildebrand, to shake 
And purify us like a mighty wind. 

* The abbey was then about 400 years old. After falling into decay it was 
restored in the eleventh century at the command of a German pope, Leo IX., 
by his nephew, Adelbert, Count of Calva, who ended his life there as a monk. 
In the thirteenth century a decline began, from which it did not recover. 

304. Buried. The monks were sometimes buried in the cloister, either under 
the turf in the open square, or beneath the pavement of the walk. 

306. Abbot William. During the twenty-two years of his rule, from 1069 to 
1091, he revived the order of St. Benedict, then almost fallen into ruin in Ger- 
many, founded twenty-three monasteries, and restored more than seventy 
others, to which he sent many of the volumes copied at Hirschau. He sup- 
ported Gregory VII. in his struggle with the German emperor, and took an 
active part in the ecclesiastical controversies of the day. He was also a vo- 
luminous writer on music, philosophy, and science. 

312. Godfather. The godfather, or sponsor, was often the donor, as prob- 
ably in this case. So great was their regard for bells that, besides their other 
occupations, monks often cast those that were to be hung in the towers of 
their abbeys. 

317. Hildebrand. Gregory VII., pope from 1073 to 1085. He reformed 
many of the abuses of the Church, enforced the celibacy of the clergy, hum- 
bled the German emperor, Henry IV., but was finally obliged to leave Rome, 
and died at Salerno, {v. Sir James Stephen's Essays in Ecclesiastical Biog- 
rcpAj/, — Hildebrand ; and Milman's Za/. Christ, iii. Bk. 7.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 121 

The world is wicked, and sometimes I wonder 

320 God does not lose his patience with it wholly, 
And shatter it like glass ! Even here, at times, 
Within these walls, where all should be at peace, 
I have my trials, Time has laid his hand 
Upon my heart, gently, not smiting it, 

326 But as a harper lays his open palm 
Upon his harp, to deaden its vibrations. 
Ashes are on my head, and on my lips 
Sackcloth, and in my breast a heaviness 
And weariness of life, that makes me ready 

330 To say to the dead Abbots under us, 

" Make room for me ! " Only I see the dusk 
Of evening twilight coming, and have not 
Completed half my task ; and so at times 
The thought of my short-comings in this life 

336 Falls like a shadow on the life to come. 

Prince Henry. We must all die, and not the old 
alone ; 
The young have no exemption from that doom. 
Abbot. Ah, yes ! the young may die, but the old 
must ! 
That is the difference. 

340 Prince Henry. I have heard much laud 

Of your transcribers. Your Scriptorium 

328. Sackcloth. From the earliest times sackcloth and ashss have been 
marks of mourning and penitence, as in the case of Job (xvi. 15), and the King 
of Nineveh {Jonah iii. G), who covered himself with s?xkcloth and sat in 
ashes. Ash Wednesday is so called because in the early Church on that day 
ashes were thrown upon the penitents clothed in sackcloth, whose sins had 
debarred them from a participation in her services. The ashes were ob- 
tained from burning the palms consecrated the previous year on Palm Sunday. 

341. Scriptorium. There were one hundred and fifty monks at Hirschau, 
of whom twelve were expert copyists, the abbot himself sometimes taking his 
place in the Scriptorium, where the text was read aloud. Not only sacred 
books but the classic authors were copied in the Scriptoria, and thus pre- 
served. 



122 LONGFELLOW. 

Is famous among all ; your manuscripts 
Praised for their beauty and their excellence. 
Abbot. That is indeed our boast. If you desire it, 
345 You shall behold these treasures. And meanwhile 
Shall the Refectorarius bestow 
Your horses and attendants for the night. 
They go in. The Vesper-hell rings. 

THE CHAPEL. 

Vespers ; * after which the monks retire, a chorister leading an old 
monk who is blind. 

Prince Henry. They are all gone, save one 
who lingers, 

Absorbed in deep and silent prayer. 
380 As if his heart could find no rest, 

At times he beats his heaving breast 

With clenched and convulsive fingers, 

Then lifts them trembling in the air. 

A chorister, with golden hair, 
355 Guides hitherward his heavy pace. 

Can it be so ? Or does my sight 

Deceive me in the uncertain light ? 

Ah no ! I recognize that face. 

Though Time has touched it in his flight, 
360 And changed the auburn hair to white. 

It is Count Hugo of the Rhine, 

346. Refectorarius. The official here mentioned was called in English the 
Hospitaller, who performed the duties of hospitality on behalf of the establish- 
ment, saw to the accommodation of the guests who belonged to the convent, 
introduced into the refectory strange priests or others who had leave to dine 
there, and ushered guests of high degree to the abbot. 

* The seventh canonical hour of the monastic day, about six o'clock in the 
evening. 

361. Count of the Rhine {Rheingraf), one of the family occupying the 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 123 

The deadliest foe of all our race, 
And hateful unto me and mine ! 

The Blind Monk. Who is it that doth stand so 
near 
365 His whispered words I almost hear ? 

Prince Henry. I am Prince Henry of Hohe- 
neck, 
And you, Count Hugo of the Rhine ! 
I know you, and I see the scar, 
The brand upon your forehead, shine 
370 And redden like a baleful star ! 

The Blind Monk. Count Hugo once, but now 
the wreck 
Of what I was. O Hoheneck ! 
The passionate will, the pride, the wrath 
That bore me headlong on my path, 
375 Stumbled and staggered into fear, 
And failed me in my mad career, 
As a tired steed some evil-doer, 
Alone upon a desolate moor, 
Bewildered, lost, deserted, blind, 
380 And hearing loud and close behind 
The o'ertaking steps of his pursuer. 
Then suddenly from the dark there came 
A voice that called me by my name, 
And said to me, " Kneel down and pray ! " 
385 And so my terror passed away, 

castle of Rheingrafenstein, not far from Vautsberg. {v. p. 112, n.) The his- 
torian of Hirschau speaks of the nobles and peasants who were to be found 
there, as in other religious houses, without distinction ; the former often to 
atone for the faults of youth or the barbarous abuse of power. It became 
necessary to enlarge the monastic buildings in order to lodge them. The more 
illustrious their birth, the lowlier were the services they wished to render to 
the community, "so that in the monasteries," says a chronicler, "one saw 
counts cooking in the kitchen, and margraves taking the pigs out to feed." 



124 LONGFELLOW. 

Passed utterly away forever. 

Contrition, penitence, remorse, 

Came on me, with o'erwhelming force ; 

A hope, a longing, an endeavor, 
390 By days of penance and nights of prayer, 

To frustrate and defeat despair ! 

Calm, deejD, and still is now my heart, 

With tranquil waters overflowed ; 

A lake whose unseen fountains start, 
395 Where once the hot volcano glowed. 

And you, O Prince of Hoheneck ! 

Have known me in that earlier time, 

A man of violence and crime, 

Whose passions brooked no curb nor check. 
400 Behold me now, in gentler mood. 

One of this holy brotherhood. 

Give me your hand ; here let me kneel ; 

Make your reproaches sharp as steel ; 

Spurn me, and smite me on each cheek ; 
405 No violence can harm the meek, 

There is no wound Christ cannot heal ! 

Yes ; lift your princely hand, and take 

Revenge, if 't is revenge you seek ; 

Then pardon me, for Jesus' sake ! 
410 Prince Hexky. Arise, Count Hugo ! let there be 

No farther strife nor enmity 

Between us twain ; w^e both have erred ! 

Too rash in act, too wroth in word. 

From the beginning have we stood 
415 In fierce, defiant attitude, 

Each thoughtless of the other's right, 

And each reliant on his might. 

But now our souls are more subdued ; 



TEE GOLDEN LEGEND. 125 

The hand of God, and not in vain, 
420 Has touched us with the fire of pain. 
Let us kneel down, and side by side 
Pray, till our souls are purified. 
And pardon will not be denied ! 
They kneel. 

THE REFECTORY. 

Gaudiolum of Monks at midnight.^ Lucifer disguised as a 
Friar, 

Friar Paul sings, t 
Ave ! color vini clari, 
420 Dulcis potus, non amari, 

Tua nos inebriari 
Digneris potentia ! 
Friar Cuthbert. Not so much noise, my worthy 
freres, 
You '11 disturb the Abbot at his prayers. 
Friar Paul sings, 
430 O ! quam placens in colore ! 

O ! quam fragrans in odore ! 
O ! quam sapidum in ore ! 
Dulce linguae vinculum ! 
Friar Cuthbert. I should think your tongue had 
broken its chain ! 

* "I have endeavored to show in it " (the Golden Legend), says Longfellow 
in a letter, 1852, " that through the darkness and corruption of the Middle 
Ages ran a bright, deep stream of Faith, strong enough for all the exigencies 
of life and death. In order to do this, I had to introduce some portion of this 
darkness and corruption as a background." (Samuel Longfellow's Life of 
Longfellow, ii. 214.) 

t In imitation of mediaeval Latin poetry. "It is worthy of observation 
how, during the Middle Ages, rhyme souglit to penetrate and make a place for 
itself everywhere." (Introduction to Trench's Sacred Latin Poetry, where 
the development of mediaeval Latin poetry is fully treated. ) Its chief charac- 
teristic was the substitution of rhyme for metre. 



126 LONGFELLOW. 

Friar Paul sings. 
43B Felix venter qiiem intrabis ! 

Felix guttur quod rigabis ! 
Felix OS quod tu lavabis ! 
Et beata labia ! 
Friar Cuthbert. Peace ! I say, peace ! 
440 Will you never cease ! 

You will rouse up the Abbot, I tell you again ! 
Friar John. No danger ! to-night he will let us 
alone, 
As I happen to know he has guests of his own. 
Friar Cuthbert. Who are they ? 
445 Friar Johx. A German Prince and his train, 

Who arrived here just before the rain. 
There is with him a damsel fair to see, 
As slender and graceful as a reed ! 
When she alighted from her steed, 
450 It seemed like a blossom blown from a tree. 

Friar Cuthbert. None of your pale-faced girls 
for me ! 
None of your damsels of high degree ! 
Friar John. Come, old fellow, drink down to 
your peg ! 
But do not drink any farther, I beg ! * 
Friar Paul sings. 
46S In the days of gold. 

The days of old. 
Crosier of wood 
And bishop of gold ! 
Friar Cuthbert. What an infernal racket and 
riot ! 

* Because according to the rule he would then be obliged to drink again, 
which Friar John thinks unnecessary. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 127 

460 Can you not drink your wine in quiet ? 
Why fill the convent with such scandals, 
As if we were so many drunken Vandals ? 
Friar Paul continues. 
Now we have changed 
That law so good, 
465 To crosier of gold . 

And bishop of wood ! 
Friar Cuthbert. Well, then, since you are in the 
mood 
To give your noisy humors vent, 
Sing and howl to your heart's content ! 
Chorus of Monks. 
470 Funde vinum, funde ! 

Tanquam sint fluminis undse. 
Nee qutEras unde, 
Sed fundas semper abunde ! 
Friar John. What is the name of yonder friar, 
475 With an eye that glows like a coal of fire, 
And such a black mass of tangled hair ? 

462. Vandals. Of all the hordes that laid waste the Roman Empire, the 
Vandals alone made their very name a synonym of wanton devastation. Frey- 
tag, however {Bilder aus der deutschen Vergangenheit, i. ch. 2), thinks that 
their bad reputation is probably undeserved, and due, not more to the rapac- 
ity of their leaders and their failure to permanently establish themselves, than 
to their stout adhesion to the Arian heresy, the hatred of the orthodox Chris- 
tians towards the Arians being greater than that of the same Christians to- 
wards the heathen. All the great Germanic races which derived their Chris- 
tianity from the Eastern Empire, the Goths, Vandals, Heruli, Lombards, were 
converted by Arian missionaries ; the Franks, from their connection with the 
Roman pontiif, were baptized into the orthodox faith. Most of the former 
races wavered between Arianism and orthodoxy ; the Vandals and Ostrogoths, 
on the other hand, remained steadfast and did not survive the suppression of 
their faith. Our idea of them, as of the Carthaginians, has been derived from 
their enemies. For a definition of Arianism, v. Schaflf 's History of the Chris- 
tian Church, iii. sect. 119. 

466. Bishop of wood. As the abbey became richer the authority of the 
abbot was relaxed, and a decline of discipline ensued. 



128 LONGFELLOW. 

Friar Paul. He who is sitting there, 
With a rollicking, 
Devil may care, 
480 Free and easy look and air. 

As if he were used to such feasting and frolicking ? 
Friar Johx. The same. 

Friar Paul. He 's a stranger. You had better 
ask his name, 
And where he is going, and whence he came. 
485 Friar John. Hallo ! Sir Friar ! 

Friar Paul. You must raise your voice a little 
higher. 
He does not seem to hear what you say. 
Now, try again ! He is looking this way. 
Friar John. Hallo ! Sir Friar, 
490 We wish to inquire 

Whence you came, and where you are going, 
And anything else that is worth the knowing. 
So be so good as to open your head. 
Lucifer. I am a Frenchman born and bred, 
495 Going on a pilgrimage to Rome. 
My home 

Is the convent of St. Gildas de Rhuys, 
Of which, very like, you never have heard. 
Monks. Never a word ! 
600 Lucifer. You must know, then, it is in the diocese 
Called the Diocese of Vannes, 
In the province of Brittany. 

497. St. Gildas de Ehiiys. A Benedictine abbey, founded in the sixth cen- 
tury on the peninsula of Rhuys, in lower Brittany, by a Welsh monk, the Abbot 
Gildas, called "the Wise," who, after studying in Paris, and laboring in Brit- 
ain and Ireland, led to Brittany a colony of monks to convert the Celtic tribes 
driven from Britain by the Saxon invasion. 

502. Brittany ; Lesser Britain, the ancient Armorica, where the ante-Ro- 
man population still kept its Celtic language. The rule of the Franks, and 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND, 129 

From the gray rocks of Morbihan 

It overlooks the angry sea ; 
606 The very sea-shore where, 
In his great despair, 

Abbot Abelard walked to and fro, 

Filling the night with woe, 

And wailing aloud to the merciless seas 
810 The same of his sweet Heloise ! 

Whilst overhead 

The convent windows gleamed as red 

As the fiery eyes of the monks within, 

Who with jovial din 

afterward of the English, was always precarious there, and it was only for- 
mally united to France by the marriage of its duchess to two successive 
French kings in the sixteenth century, but not until the seventeenth century 
was paganism finally abolished. Old pagan customs still survive there, and 
fountains, large trees, and the mistletoe are venerated ; young people still 
dance around the dolmens, or cromlechs, the remains of Druidical places of 
worship. Geologically, Brittany consists of two bands of granite approaching 
each other in the west. The impression of its coast scenery hounded by per- 
pendicular walls is one of monotonous and sombre grandeur. 

503. Morbihan, "The little sea," an inland bay, of comparatively recent 
creation, with many small islands scatttered over it, gives its name to the 
Southern Department of Brittany, of which Vannes is the capital. The south- 
ern shore of the bay is the peninsula of Rhuys. 

504. Sea. Off the western promontories of Brittany the Gulf Stream en- 
counters the secondary ocean current ; the tides are violent and irregular, 
rising on the north coast to the height of forty or fifty feet ; the sea is per- 
petually in motion, a powerful undercurrent sweeping the granitic sea-bottom. 
Since the fifth century hundreds of square miles of land have been eaten away 
by the ocean, so that tales of buried cities haunt the popular imagination. 

507. Abelard, a celebrated logician and theologian, born of a noble Breton 
family near Nantes in 1079 ; refuted both the Nominalists and Realists of the 
day, adopting a middle course in the schools which he established ; appointed 
canon of Notre Dame, he won the affections of Ht^loise, niece of Canon Ful- 
bert, and was compelled to leave Paris, becoming finally Abbot of St. Gildas in 
Brittany ; charged with heresy by St. Bernard, he appealed to Rome, but died 
on the journey, at Cluny, in 1142. {v. Milman's Lat. Christ. Bk. viii. ch. 5.) 
Mention of him here as a contemporary personage is one of the anachronisms 
of this poem, which aims to present pictures of mediaeval life without regard 
to chronological exactness. 
9 



130 LONGFELLOW. 

MB Gave themselves up to all kinds of sin ! 
Ha ! that is a convent ! that is an abbey ! 

Over the doors, 

None of your death-heads carved in wood, 

None of your Saints looking pious and good, 
B20 None of your Patriarchs old and shabby ! 

But the heads and tusks of boars, 

And the cells 

Hung all round with the fells 

Of the fallow-deer. 
626 And then what cheer ! 

What jolly, fat friars, 

Sitting round the great, roaring fires, 

Roaring louder than they, 

With their strong wines, 
830 And their concubines. 



516. Abbey. Abelard described the abbey in a letter to his friend Philintus 
as follows: "I live in a barbarous country, the language of which I do not 
understand ; I have no conversation but with the rudest people, my walks 
are on the inaccessible shore of a sea, which is perpetually stormy, my 
monks are only known by their dissoluteness, and living without any rule or 
order, could you see the abby, Philintus, you would not call it one. the doors 
and walls are without any ornament, except the heads of wild boars and hinds 
feet, which are nailed up against them, and the hides of frightful animals, 
the cells are hung with the skins of deer, the monks have not so much as a 
bell to wake them, the cocks and dogs supply that defect, in short, they pass 
their whole days in hunting ; would to heaven that were their greatest fault ! 
or that their pleasures terminated there ! I endeavor in vain to recall them 
to their duty ; they all combine against me, and I only expose myself to con- 
tinual vexations and dangers. I imagine I see every moment a naked sword 
hang over my head, sometimes they surround me, and load me with infinite 
abuses ; sometimes they abandon me, and I am left alone to my own tormenting 
thoughts. ... ah Philintus, does not the love of Ht^loise still burn in my 
heart ? I have not yet triumphed over that unhappy passion, in the midst 
of my retirement I sigh, I weep, I pine, I speak the dear name H^loise, and 
am pleased to hear the sound." 

530. Concxibines. This epithet was applied to the wives of the clergy by 
those who supported the decrees of Hildebrand enjoining clerical celibacy. 
(V. Lea's Sacerdotal Celibacy, 196, note.) The monks of St. Gildas were as 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 131 

And never a bell, 

With its swagger and swell, 

Calling you up with a start of affright 

In the dead of night, 
635 To send you grumbling down dark stairs, 

To mumble your prayers. 

But the cheery crow 

Of cocks in the yard below, 

After daybreak, an hour or so, 
640 And the barking of deep-mouthed hounds. 

These are the sounds 

That, instead of bells, salute the ear. 

And then all day 

Up and away 
645 Through the forest, hunting the deer ! 

Ah, my friends ! I 'm afraid that here 

You are a little too pious, a little too tame. 

And the more is the shame. 

'T is the greatest folly 
660 Not to be jolly ; 

That 's what I think ! 

Come, drink, drink. 

Drink, and die game ! 
Monks. And your Abbot What's-his-name ? 
655 Lucifer. Abelard ! 

Monks. Did he drink hard ? 
Lucifer. O, no ! Not he ! 

He was a dry old fellow, 

Without juice enough to get thoroughly mellow. 
660 There he stood, 

lawless in life as in manners ; there was no common fund, yet Abelard was 
expected to maintain the buildings and religious services of the community. 
Each monk spent what he could lay his hands upon, to support himself, his 
wife, and children, Hildebrand's decrees not having reached Brittany. 



132 LONGFELLOW. 

Lowering at us in sullen mood, 
As if he had come into Brittany- 
Just to reform our brotherhood ! 
A roar of laughter. 
But you see 
665 It never would do ! 

For some us knew a thing or two, 
In the Abbey of St. Gildas de Rhuys ! 
For instance, the great ado 
With old Fulbert's niece, 
670 The young and lovely Heloise. 

Friar John. Stop there, if you please, 
Till we drink to the fair Heloise. 
All, drinking and shouting. Heloise ! Heloise ! 

The Chapel-hell tolls. 
Lucifer, starting. What is that bell for? Are 
you such asses 
676 As to keep up the fashion of midnight masses ? 

Friar Cuthbert. It is only a poor, unfortunate 
brother, 
Who is gifted with most miraculous powers 
Of getting up at all sorts of hours, 
And, by way of penance and Christian meekness, 

563. Rejorm. This was Abelard's intention. His banishment to St. Gildas 
was a punishment, but he endeavored to subject the brotherhood to the severe 
rule of St. Benedict. The monks hated his strictness and even his piety. 

570. Heloise. He had in the mean time established HtJloise in the oratory 
of the Paraclete, with the nuns who had followed her from St. Denis. Hither 
his remains were brought from Cluny, and twenty years afterward she was 
laid by his side. The Gothic monument under which their bodies were 
finally placed in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise in Paris, in 1817, was said to 
have been constructed of fragments of the Paraclete, but has been pronoimced 
by the eminent architect Viollet-le-Duc to be a poor work of the sixteenth 
century ; wliile the letters of Heloise to Abelard, over which the world has 
wept, are called by critics " a most audacious literary fabrication." {v. Bar- 
th^lemy's Erreurs et Mensonges Ilisforiques, ii.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 133 

680 Of creeping silently out of his cell 

To take a pull at that hideous bell ; 

So that all the monks who are lying awake 

May murmur some kind of prayer for his sake, 

And adapted to his peculiar weakness ! 
685 Frtar John. From frailty and fall — 
All. Good Lord, deliver us all ! 
Friar Cuthbert. And before the bell for matins 
sounds, 

He takes his lantern, and goes the rounds, 

Flashing it into our sleepy eyes, 
690 Merely to say it is time to arise. 

But enough of that. Go on, if you please. 

With your story about St. Gildas de Rhuys. 
Lucifer. Well, it finally came to pass 

That, half in fun and half in malice, 
696 One Sunday at Mass 

We put some poison into the chalice. 

But, either by accident or design, 

Peter Abelard kept away 

From the chapel that day, 
600 And a poor, young friar, who in his stead 

Drank the sacramental wine. 

Fell on the steps of the altar, dead 

But look ! do you see at the window there 

That face, with a look of grief and despair, 
605 That ghastly face, as of one in pain ? 

587. Matins. Midnight ; the first canonical hour of the Breviary, or abridg- 
ment of the Roman Catholic service. 

602. Dead. This account of the savage character of the monks of St. Gildas 
is not exaggerated. Besides the attempt to poison the chalice it is told that a 
monk who had tasted food intended for Abelard died in agony. Finally, when 
even excommunication had failed, the abbot took refuge in a cell remote from 
the monastery with a few of the better monks, but even there he was watched 
by robbers hired to murder him. 



134 LONGFELLOW. 

Monks. Who ? where ? 

Lucifer. As I spoke, it vanished away again. 
Friar Cuthbert. It is that nefarious 
Siebald the Refectorarius. 
610 That fellow is always playing the scout, 
Creeping and peeping and prowling about ; 
And then he regales 
The Abbot with scandalous tales. 
Lucifer. A spy in the convent ? One of the 
brothers 
616 Telling scandalous tales of the others? 
Out upon him, the lazy loon ! 
I would put a stop to that pretty soon, 
In a way he should rue it. 
Monks. How shall we do it ? 
620 Lucifer. Do you, Brother Paul, 

Creep under the window, close to the wall, 
And open it suddenly when I call. 
Then seize the villain by the hair. 
And hold him there, 
625 And punish him soundly, once for all. 

Friar Cuthbert. As St. Dunstan of old, 
We are told, 

Once caught the Devil by the nose ! 
Lucifer. Ha I ha ! that story is very clever, 
630 But has no foundation whatsoever. 
Quick ! for I see his face again 

626. St. Dunstan. An English monk, born 925, became archbishop of Can- 
terbury ; a statesman and scholar, he was also a remarkable musician, painter, 
and worker in metals. Legend says that one night as he labored at the forge 
the Devil came to tempt him in the form of a beautiful woman, whom Dunstan 
seized by the nose with his red-hot tongs. The identical pair of tongs was 
shown at Mayfield, England, as late as 1749. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 135 

Glaring in at the window-pane ; 

Now ! now ! and do not spare your blows. 

Fkiar Paul opens the window suddenly, and seizes Siebald. They 
heat him. 

Friar Siebald. Help ! help ! are you going to 
slay me ? 
636 Friar Paul. That will teach you again to be- 
tray me ! 
Friar Siebald. Mercy ! mercy ! 

Friar Paul, shouting and beating. 
Rumpas bellorum lorum, 
Vim confer amorum 
Morum verorum rorum 
640 Tu plena polorum ! 

Lucifer. Who stands in the doorway yonder, 
Stretching out his trembling hand, 
Just as Abelard used to stand, 
The flash of his keen, black eyes 
645 Forerunning the thunder ? 

The Monks, in confusion. The Abbot ! the Abbot ! 
Friar Cuthbert. And what is the wonder I 

He seems to have taken you by surprise. 
Friar Francis. Hide the great flagon 
660 From the eyes of the dragon ! 

Friar Cuthbert. Pull the brown hood over your 
face ! 
This will bring us into disgrace ! 

Abbot. What means this revel and carouse ? 
Is this a tavern and drinking-house ? 
665 Are you Christian monks, or heathen devils, 
To pollute this convent with your revels ? 
Were Peter Damian still upon earth, 

657. Damian. An Italian monk and prelate, born at Ravenna about 988. 



136 LONGFELLOW. 

To be shocked by such ungodly mirth, 

He would write your names, with pen of gall, 
660 In his Book of Gomorrah, one and all ! 

Away, you drunkards ! to your cells. 

And pray till you hear the matin-bells ; 

You, Brother Francis, and you, Brother Paul ! 

And as a penance mark each prayer 
666 With the scourge upon your shoulders bare ; 

Nothing atones for such a sin 

But the blood that follows the discipline. 

And you. Brother Cuthbert, come with me 

Alone into the sacristy ; 
670 You, who should be a guide to your brothers. 

And are ten times worse than all the others, 

For you I 've a draught that has long been brewing. 

You shall do a penance worth the doing ! 

Away to your prayers, then, one and all ! 
676 I wonder the very convent wall 

Does not crumble and crush you in its fall ! * 

THE NEIGHBORING NUNNERY. 

The Abbess t Irmingard sitting with Elsie in the moonlight. 
Irmingard. The night is silent, the wind is still. 
The moon is looking from yonder hill 

He made vigorous efforts by preaching and writing to reform the disorders of 
the clergy ; died 1072. 

660. Book oj Gomorrah. An essay on the vices of the time addressed by 
Damlan to Leo IX., an eminent scholar and reformer. 

* "Longfellow, in the Golden Z/Cgrenf/," says Ruskin, "has entered more 
clearly into the temper of the monk, for good and for evil, than ever yet 
theological writer or historian, though they may have given their life's labor 
to the analysis." {Modern Painters, Pt. v. ch. 20.) 

t The superior of a convent of nuns. She possessed in general the same 
dignity and authority as an abbot, except that she could not exercise the 
spiritual functions of the priesthood. She bore the crosier in addition to the 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 137 

Down upon convent, and grove, and garden ; 
680 The clouds have passed away from her face, 
Leaving behind them no sorrowful trace, 
Only the tender and quiet grace 
Of one, whose heart has been healed with pardon ! 

And such am I. My soul within 
685 Was dark with passion and soiled with sin. 
But now its wounds are healed again ; 
Gone are the anguish, the terror, and pain ; 
For across that desolate land of woe, 
O'er whose burning sands I was forced to go, 
690 A wind from heaven began to blow ; 
And all my being trembled and shook. 
As the leaves of the tree, or the grass of the field, 
And I was healed, as the sick are healed. 
When fanned by the leaves of the Holy Book ! 

695 As thou sittest in the moonlight there, 

Its glory flooding thy golden hair. 

And the only darkness that which lies 

In the haunted chambers of thine eyes, 

I feel my soul drawn unto thee, 
700 Strangely, and strongly, and more and more, 

As to one I have known and loved before ; 

For every soul is akin to me 

That dwells in the land of mystery ! 

I am the Lady Irmingard, 
705 Born of a noble race and name ! 

Many a wandering Suabian bard, 

ordinary costume of her order, and her house had the same regulations as that 
of the monks. The principal occupation of the learned Benedictine nuns was 
the transcription of books. 
706. Suabian. Suabia was the centre of literary culture during the protect- 



138 LONGFELLOW. 

Whose life was dreary, and bleak, and hard, 

Has found through me the way to fame. 

Brief and bright w^ere those days, and the night 
710 Which followed was full of a lurid light. 

Love, that of every woman's heart 

Will have the whole, and not a part, 

That is to her, in Nature's plan, 

More than ambition is to man, 
715 Her light, her life, her very breath, 

With no alternative but death, 

Found me a maiden soft and young. 

Just from the convent's cloistered school, 

And seated on my lowly stool, 
720 Attentive while the minstrels sung. 

Gallant, graceful, gentle, tall, 
Fairest, noblest, best of all. 
Was Walter of the Vogelweid ; 
And, whatsoever may betide, 
726 Still I think of him with pride ! 
His song was of the summer-time, 

ing reign of the Hohenstaufen emperors, 1138-1268, who were originally dukes 
of Suabia, comprising parts of the present Wurtemberg, Bavaria, and northern 
Switzerland. 

708. Fame. By taking as the subject of his song the beauty of the noble 
lady, Irmingard. 

718. School. In every monastery were established a library, a Scriptorium, 
and finally schools, frequented by the children of serfs and nobles alike. 
Those for girls were conducted by nims in convents affiliated to the monastic 
establishments. Longfellow places one near Hirschau, that Elsie may be 
suitably lodged while Prince Henry is the guest of the abbey. 

726. His .wng. Walter von der Vogelweide was singer to Philip of Suabia 
and Frederick II. "Without ever connecting love and nature in the con- 
ventional way," says Scherer, " he repeatedly sung of the various seasons in 
a maimer always fresh and original. He only adorns his poetry ^N-ith that 
which nature offers in all times and places : bright blossoms and green branches, 
tilings which never grow old." {Hist. Ger. Lit. ch. 7.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND, 139 

The very birds sang in his rhyme ; 

The sunshine, the delicious air, 

The fragrance of the flowers, were there ; 
730 And I grew restless as I heard, 

Restless and buoyant as a bird, 

Down soft, aerial currents sailing, 

O'er blossomed orchards, and fields in bloom, 

And through the momentary gloom 
735 Of shadows o'er the landscape trailing, 

Yielding and borne I knew not where, 

But feeling resistance miavailing. 

And thus, unnoticed and apart. 

And more by accident than choice, 
740 I listened to that single voice 

Until the chambers of my heart 

Were filled with it by night and day. 

One night, — it was a night in May, — 

Within the garden, unawares, 
746 Under the blossoms in the gloom, 

I heard it utter my own name 

With protestations and wild prayers ; 

And it rang through me, and became 

Like the archangel's trump of doom, 
7B0 Which the soul hears, and must obey ; 

And mine arose as from a tomb. 

My former life now seemed to me 

Such as hereafter death may be. 

When in the great Eternity 
755 We shall awake and find it day. 

It was a dream, and would not stay ; 
A dream, that in a single night 



140 LONGFELLOW. 

Faded and vanished out of sight. 

My father's anger followed fast 
760 This passion, as a freshening blast 

Seeks out and fans the fire, whose rage 

It may increase, but not assuage. 

And he exclaimed : " No wandering bard 

Shall win thy hand, Irmingard ! 
765 For which»Prince Henry of Hoheneck 

By messenger and letter sues." 

Gently, but firmly, I replied : 

" Henry of Hoheneck I discard ! 

Never the hand of Irmingard 
770 Shall lie in his as the hand of a bride ! " 

This said I, Walter, for thy sake ; 

This said I, for I could not choose. 

After a pause, my father spake 

In that cold and deliberate tone 
776 Which turns the hearer into stone, 

And seems itself the act to be 

That follows with such dread certainty ; 

" This, or the cloister and the veil ! " 

No other words than these he said, 
780 But they were like a funeral wail ; 

My life was ended, my heart was dead. 

That night from the castle-gate went down, 

With silent, slow, and stealthy pace. 

Two shadows, mounted on shadowy steeds, 

778. Cloister. This word is often used for the entire convent. The white 
veil was worn during the year of probation, after which the novice, if persist- 
ing in her determination to withdraw from the world, assumed the black veil 
and the irrevocable vows in presence of her family and friends. For an inter- 
esting account of this ceremony in Italy, v. Bentley''s Mag. xx. 509. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 141 

786 Taking the narrow path that leads 

Into the forest dense and brown. 

In the leafy darkness of the place, 

One could not distinguish form nor face, 

Only a bulk without a shape, 
790 A darker shadow in the shade ; 

One scarce could say it moved or stayed. 

Thus it was we made our escape ! 

A foaming brook, with many a bound. 

Followed us like a playful hound ; 
795 Then leaped before us, and in the hollow 

Paused, and waited for us to follow, 

And seemed impatient, and afraid 

That our tardy flight should be betrayed 

By the sound our horses' hoof-beats made. 
800 And when we reached the plain below, 

We paused a moment and drew rein 

To look back at the castle again ; 

And we saw the windows all aglow 

With lights, that were passing to and fro ; 
805 Our hearts with terror ceased to beat ; 

The brook crept silent to our feet ; 

We knew what most we feared to know. 

Then suddenly horns began to blow ; 

And we heard a shout, and a heavy tramp, 
810 And our horses snorted in the damp 

Night-air of the meadows green and wide, 

And in a moment, side by side. 

So close, they must have seemed but one. 

The shadows across the moonlight run, 
815 And another came, and swept behind. 

Like the shadow of clouds before the wind ! 



142 LONGFELLOW. 

How I remember that breathless flight 

Across the moors, in the summer night ! 

. How under our feet the long, white road 

820 Backward like a river flowed, 

Sweeping with it fences and hedges, 
Whilst farther away, and overhead, 
Paler than I, with fear and dread, 
The moon fled with us, as we fled 

825 Along the forest's jagged edges ! 

All this I can remember well ; 

But of what afterwards befell 

I nothing further can recall 

Than a bhnd, desperate, headlong fall ; 
830 The rest is a blank and darkness all. 

When I awoke out of this swoon. 

The sun was shining, not the moon, 

Making a cross upon the wall 

With the bars of my windows narrow and tall ; 
835 And I prayed to it, as I had been wont to pray. 

From early childhood, day by day, 

Each morning, as in bed I lay ! 

I was lying again in my own room ! 

And I thanked God, in my fever and pain, 
840 That those shadows on the midnight plain 

Were gone, and could not come again ! 

I struggled no longer with my doom ! 

This happened many years ago. 
I left my father's home to come 
846 Like Catherine to her martyrdom, 
For blindly I esteemed it so. 
And when I heard the convent door 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 143 

Behind me close, to ope no more, 
I felt it smite me like a blow. 
850 Through all my limbs a shudder ran, 
And on my bruised spirit fell • 
The dampness of my narrow cell 
As night-air on a wounded man, 
Giving intolerable pain. 

855 But now a better life began. 

I felt the agony decrease 

By slow degrees, then wholly cease, 

Ending in perfect rest and peace ! 

It was not apathy, nor dulness, 
860 That weighed and pressed upon my brain. 

But the same passion I had given / 

To earth before, now turned to heaven 

With all its overflowing fulness. 

Alas ! the world is full of peril ! 
865 The path that runs through the fairest meads, 

On the sunniest side of the valley, leads 

Into a region bleak and sterile ! 

Alike in the high-born and the lowly. 

The will is feeble, and passion strong. 
870 We cannot sever right from wrong ; 

Some falsehood mingles with all truth ; 

Nor is it strange the heart of youth 

Should waver and comprehend but slowly 

The things that are holy and unholy ! 
875 But in this sacred, calm retreat. 

We are all well and safely shielded 

From winds that blow, and waves that beat. 

From the cold, and rain, and blighting heat, 



144 LONGFELLOW. 

To which the strongest hearts have yielded. 

880 Here we stand as the Virgins Seven, 
For our celestial bridegroom yearning ; 
Our hearts are l^nps forever burning, 
With a steady and unwavering flame, 
Pointing upward, forever the same, 

885 Steadily upward toward the heaven ! 

The moon is hidden behind a cloud ; 

A sudden darkness fills the room, 

And thy deep eyes, amid the gloom, 

Sliine like jewels in a shroud. 
890 On the leaves is a sound of falling rain ; 

A bird, awakened in its nest, 

Gives a faint twitter of unrest. 

Then smooths its plumes and sleeps again. 

No other sounds than these I hear ; 
895 The hour of midnight must be near. 

Thou art o'ers23ent with the day's fatigue 

Of riding many a dusty league ; 

Sink, then, gently to thy slumber ; 

Me so many cares encumber, 
900 So many ghosts, and forms of fright. 

Have started from their graves to-night. 

They have driven sleep from mine eyes away 

I will go down to the chapel and pray. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 145 



A COVERED BRIDGE AT LUCERNE.* 

Prinoe Henry. God's blessing on the architects 
who build 
The bridges o'er swift rivers and abysses 
Before impassable to human feet, 
No less than on the builders of cathedrals, 
5 Whose massive walls are bridges thrown across 
The dark and terrible abyss of Death. 
Well has the name of Pontifex been given 
Unto the Church's head, as the chief builder 
And architect of the invisible bridge 
10 That leads from earth to heaven. 

Elsie. How dark it grows ! 

What are these paintings on the walls around us ? 

* Three bridges connect the banks of the Reuss as it leaves the lake at 
Lucerne, on the woodwork of the roofs of two of which pictures were painted. 
*' On one bridge these represent all the important Swiss battles and victories ; 
on the other they are the well-knowii series of which Longfellow has made so 
beautiful a use in the Golden Legend, the Dance of Death." (Ruskin's Mod- 
ern Painie7-s, Pt. iv. ch. 19.) They were painted, to the number of thirty-six, 
by Gaspard Meglinger, 1631-37, and while they are said to have been originally 
well executed, they have since been greatly injured by clumsy retouching. 
The mottoes under them are in German. 

7. Pontifex. The head of the Catholic Church assumed the title of the 
high priest of pagan Rome, pontifex maximus, tlie word pontifex being derived, 
according to Varro, from pons-facere, because the priests made and kept in 
repair the first bridge over the Tiber, pojis snbliciiis. Some modern archaeolo- 
gists, who assert that the priests were called poiUifices before the bridge was 
built, connect the word pom with the Sanscrit word for " path," and call 
ponfifices the road-makers of ancient Latimn. PreUer, however {Romische 
3fythologie, ii. 134), gives conclusive reasons for returning to the derivation of 
Varro, connecting the name and duties of the priests with the deep religious 
veneration felt for the Tiber and all other running streams, across which the 
Romans did not presume to throw a bridge, or, later, to repair it, without sac- 
rificial ceremonies, such as the yearly casting of the ArgeL, or iniages of men, 
into the Tiber, in symbolic reference to the more ancient human sacrifice to 
the stream-god. 

10 



146 LONGFELLOW. 

Prince Henry. The Dance Macaber ! 
Elsie. What? 

16 Prince Henry. The Dance of Death ! 

All that go to and fro must look upon it, 
Mindful of what they shall be, while beneath, 
Among the wooden piles, the turbulent river 
Rushes, impetuous as the river of life, 
20 With dimpling eddies, ever green and bright, 
Save where the shadow of this bridge falls on it. 
Elsie. O yes ! I see it now ! 

Prince Henry. The grim musician 

Leads all men through the ma^es of that dance, 
25 To different sounds in different measures moving 

13. Macaber. The French word 3facabre is derived, according to Littr6 
following Du Cange, from the Latin Chorea Machahaorum, the Dance of the 
Maccabees, a ceremony, originally French, in which dignitaries of church and 
state led the dance, dropping out axid disappearing one after the other, like 
the seven brothers, who, with their mother, successively suffered martyr- 
dom {v. II. 3Iacc. vii. and Longfellow's Judas 3Iaccab(eus), to express the 
fact that death carries away all men. To strengthen the idea Beath itself 
was employed to conduct this fantastic dance. 

15. Dance of Death. Pictures of the Dance of Death, a favorite subject with 
painters of the Middle Ages, the most celebrated bemg Holbein's designs 
engraved on wood by Liitzelberger {v. Cundall's Hans Holbein, 19), and first 
printed at Lyons in 1538, commemorated the ravages of the Plague, or Black 
Death, in the fourteenth century, when persons excited to the verge of mad- 
ness made a wild procession of the dead and thought themselves to have 
passed the limits of mortality. When the pestilence had ceased, the pro- 
cession became an orgy like the excesses of the Flagellants, or self-scourging 
penitents. "The Dance of Death " was at first a drama, or Morality Play, 
consisting of a dialogue between Death and those whom he was carrying 
away. Then the passmg drama was made a permanent one by the assistance 
of the art of paintmg, and representations of Death and his victims became 
especially common in the convents of the Dominicans, the great order of 
preachers, who used the pictures to enforce their sermons. Holbein's sketches 
of the " Emblems and Images of Mortality " must not be confounded with the 
Dance of Death painted in the Dominican convent at Basle during the session 
of the Grand Council in that city from 1431 to 1443, and erroneously attrib- 
uted to Holbein, who was born nearly a century later. His designs are en- 
tirely different from *' the dull and often disgusting Macaber Dance of Basle, 
each picture of which is confined, with little exception, to two figures only." 
(Douce's Holbein'' s Dance of Death, 73.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 147 

Sometimes he plays a lute, sometimes a drum, 
To tempt or terrify. 

Elsie. What is this picture ? 

Prince Henry. It is a young man singing to a 
nun, 
30 Who kneels at her devotions, but in kneeling 

Turns round to look at him ; and Death, meanwhile, 
Is putting out the candles on the altar ! 

Elsie. Ah, what a pity 't is that she should listen 
Unto such songs, when in her orisons 
36 She might have heard in heaven the angels singing ! 
Prince Henry. Here he has stolen a jester's cap 
and bells, 
And dances with the Queen. 

Elsie. A foolish jest ! 

Prince Henry. And here the heart of the new- 
wedded wife, 
40 Coming from church with her beloved lord. 
He startles with the rattle of his drum. 

Elsie. Ah, that is sad ! And yet perhaps 't is 
best 

32. Candles. Some of the pictures at Lucerne are supposed to have been 
suggested by, if not directly copied from, Holbein's designs. The picture 
here referred to corresponds* to No. 24 in that series, engraved in Douce's 
Holbein's Dance of Death, and accessible by photographic reproduction. It 
has been said that the young man playing the guitar in Holbein's design rep- 
resents the artist himself. It is possible that in Othello's exclamation (v. 2), 
"Put out the light, and then — put out the light!" Shakespeare recalled a 
picture similar to this, as the Dance of Death was represented by a series of 
paintings in the cloister of old St. Paul's Cathedral, London. The custom of 
having lights burning on the altar during the performance of religious worship 
is an ancient one, and expresses joy ; also the descent of the Holy Ghost, in 
the form of cloven tongues as of fire, on the Day of Pentecost. 

37. Queen. This corresponds to No. 11 of Holbein's designs, with an inscrip- 
tion in Latin from Isaiah xxxii. 9. In the queen the artist is said to have 
painted the portrait of Eleanor, wife of Francis I. of France. The figure of 
Death in the jester's attire was borrowed by Holbein from the Basle series. 

39. Wife. This is No. 35 of Holbein's series, with the Latin motto {Ruth i. 
17), Me et te sola mors separabit. 



148 LONGFELLOW. 

That she should die, with all the sunshine on her, 
And all the benedictions of the morning, 
46 Before this affluence of golden light 
Shall fade into a cold and clouded gray, 
Then into darkness ! 

Prince Henry. Under- it is written, 
" Nothing but death shall separate thee and me ! " 
BO Elsie. And what is this, that follows close upon it ? 
Prince Henry. Death, playing on a dulcimer. 
Behind him, 
A poor old woman, with a rosary, 
Follows the sound, and seems to wish her feet 
Were swifter to o'ertake him. Underneath, 
B5 The inscription reads, " Better is Death than Life." 
Elsie. Better is Death than Life ! Ah yes ! to 
thousands 
Death i)lays upon a dulcimer, and sings 
That song of consolation, till the air 
Rings with it, and they cannot choose but follow 
60 "Whither he leads. And not the old alone, 
But the young also hear it, and are still. 

Prince Henry. Yes, in their sadder moments. 
'T is the sound ' 

Of their own hearts they hear, half full of tears. 
Which are like crystal cups, half filled with water, 
65 Responding to the pressure of a finger 

With music sweet and low and melancholy. 
Let us go forward, and no longer stay 
In this great picture-gallery of Death ! 
I hate it ! ay, the very thought of it ! 

51. Dulcimer. This is No. 25 of Holbein's series, with the motto from 
Ecclesiastes iv. 2, Melior est mors quam vita. These mottoes are a relic of the 
morality-play, in which Death holds a brief conversation with the persona 
whom he is carrying away. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 149 

70 Elsie. Why is it hateful to you ? 

Prince Hexry. For the reason 

That life, and all that speaks of life, is lovely, 
And death, and all that speaks of death, is hatefid. 
Elsie. The grave itself is but a covered bridge, 
75 Leading from light to light, through a brief dark- 
ness I 
Prince Henry, emerging from the bridge. I 
breathe again more freely ! Ah, how pleasant 
To come once more into the light of day. 
Out of that shadow of death ! To hear again 
The hoof-beats of our horses on firm ground, 
80 And not upon those hollow planks, resounding 
With a sepulchral echo, like the clods 
On coffins in a churchyard ! Yonder lies 
The Lake of the Four Forest-Towns, apparelled 
In light, and lingering, like a village maiden, 
85 Hid in the bosom of her native mountains, 
Then pouring all her life into another's, 
Changing her name and being ! Overhead, 
Shaking his cloudy tresses loose in air, 
Rises Pilatus, with his windy pines. 
They jmss on. 

83. Forest-Towns. The Lake of Lucerne, originally called the Lake of the 
Four Cantons (Statte) of Lucerne, Uri, Unterwalden, and Schwytz, for which 
the poet substitutes the word " Towns " {Sthdfe). 

89. Pilatus. Mons Pileatus, the capped mountain, because often covered 
with mists from the north and northwest, which made ascent of it perilous. 
Connected with the name Pilatus are many legends of Pontius Pilate, who in 
his remorse was thought to have fled hither and cast himself into a small lake 
on the summit of the mountain. All the sudden storms which sweep over the 
Lake of Lucerne were attributed to him, and for many centuries a severe 
punislunent awaited those who dared approach the mountain lake and provoke 
the spirit to which such calamities were supposed to be due. 



160 LONGFELLOW. 

THE DEVIL'S BRIDGE.* 

Pkince Henry and Elsie crossing, with attendants. 

90 Guide. This bridge is called the Devil's Bridge. 
With a single arch, from ridge to ridge, 
It leaps across the terrible chasm 
Yawning beneath us, black and deep, 
As if, in some convulsive spasm, 
96 The summits of the hills had cracked, 
And made a road for the cataract, 
That raves and rages down the steep ! 

Lucifer, undey^ the bridge. Ha ! ha ! 

Guide. Never any bridge but this 
100 Could stand across the wild abyss ; 
All the rest, of wood or stone. 
By the Devil's hand were overthrown. 
He toppled crags from the precipice, 
And whatsoe'er was built by day 
106 In the night was swept away ; 
None could stand but this alone. 

Lucifer, under the bridge. Ha ! ha ! 

Guide. I showed you in the valley a boulder 
Marked with the imprint of his shoulder ; 
110 As he was bearing it up this way, 

A peasant, passing, cried, " Herr Je ! " 
And the Devil dropped it in his fright, 
And vanished suddenly out of sight ! 

Lucifer, under the bridge. Ha ! ha ! 

* The old bridge, the eighth over the Reuss on the St. Gotthard, was re- 
placed for travel by a new one in 1830, but still stands below it, covered with 
moss kept green by the spray from the fall one hundred feet in height. 

111. Herr Je. A common German ejaculation, contracted from Herr Jesus, 
which, in the instance alluded to, had the effect of an exorcism. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 151 

115 Guide. Abbot Giraldus of Einsiedel, 

For pilgrims on their way to Rome, 

Built this at last, with a single arch, 

Under which, on its endless march, 

Runs the river, white with foam, 
120 Like a thread through the eye of a needle. 

And the Devil promised to let it stand, 

Under compact and condition 

That the first living thing which crossed 

Should be surrendered into his hand, 
125 And be beyond redemption lost. 

Lucifer, under the bridge. Ha ! ha ! perdition ! 
Guide. At length, the bridge being all completed, 

The Abbot, standing at its head. 

Threw across it a loaf of bread, 
130 Which a hungry dog sprang after. 

And the rocks reechoed with the peals of laughter 

To see the Devil thus defeated ! 
They pass on. 
Lucifer, under the bridge. Ha ! ha ! defeated ! 

For journeys and for crimes like this 
135 I let the bridge stand o'er the abyss ! 

115. Einsiedel. Fords were often seized by feudal oppressors to plunder 
travellers, biit when pilgrimages became common the Church established 
bridges and secured safe passage over them. Einsiedeln is a town in Canton 
Schwytz, largely composed of inns for pilgrims who visit the abbey founded 
there in the time of Charlemagne. Next to St. Gall, it was the richest mo- 
nastery in Switzerland ; its abbot was a prince of the empire ; it contained 
a sacred image of the Madonna, and was annually visited by 150,000 pilgrims. 

132. Defeated. The ancients found divinities in all the manifestations of 
nature (p. 145, note) ; mediaeval Christianity converted them into demons, and 
many legends are told of the opposition of these water-spirits or demons to 
bridge-building, and of the sacrifices necessary to baffle them. " Devil's- 
bridges" are common m Germany and Switzerland, and the legend of the 
poem is also associated with the bridge over the Danube at Ratisbon, on 
which are carved figures of the dog, cock, and hen, — " the first living things 
to cross." 



152 LONGFELLOW. 



THE ST. GOTTHARD PASS.* 

Pkince Henry. This is the highest point. Two 
ways the rivers 
Leap down to different seas, and as they roll 
Grow deep and still, and their majestic presence 
Becomes a benefaction to the towns 
140 They visit, wandering silently among them. 
Like patriarchs old among their shining tents. 

Elsie. How bleak and bare it is ! Nothing but 
mosses 
Grow on these rocks. 

Prince Henry. Yet are they not forgotten ; 
146 Beneficent Nature sends the mists to feed them. 

Elsie. See yonder little cloud, that, borne aloft 
So tenderly by the wind, floats fast away 
Over the snowy peaks ! It seems to me 
The body of St. Catherine, borne by angels ! 
180 Prince Henry. Thou art St. Catherine, and in- 
visible angels 
Bear thee across these chasms and precipices. 
Lest thou shouldst dash thy feet against a stone ! 

* From the summit of the pass, 6,507 feet above the sea, the Reuss flows 
into the Rhine, and thence into the North Sea ; the Ticino into Lago Maggiore 
and the Mediterranean. This pass was the most frequented of all the routes 
over the Alps until the construction of the roads over the passes of the Sim- 
plon and SplUgen in the present century. As elsewhere, a hospice stood on the 
summit for the entertainment of travellers, comparatively disused since the 
opening of the railway tunnel in 1880. 

149. St. Catherine, of Alexandria, the Christian Hypatia, patroness of educa- 
tion and colleges, a relative of Constantino the Great, suffered martyrdom un- 
der Maxentius in the fourth century, according to the Aurea Legenda. After 
a futile attempt to execute her between wheels set with knives, she was be- 
headed, and angels bore her body to the top of Mt. Sinai, where it was en- 
tombed. Her history, particularly the legend of her mystic marriage to the 
Infant Jesus, formed a favorite subject of art. {y. Sacred and Legend. Art. 
ii. 467.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 153 

Elsie. Would I were borne unto my grave, as 
she was, 
Upon angelic shoulders ! Even now 

165 I seem uplifted by them, light as air ! 
What sound is that ? 

Prince Henry. The tumbling avalanches ! 
Elsie. How awful, yet how beautiful ! 
Prince Henry. These are 

160 The voices of the mountains ! Thus they ope 
Their snowy lips, and speak unto each other, 
In the primeval language, lost to man. 

Elsie. What land is this that spreads itself be- 
neath us ? 
Prince Henry. Italy ! Italy ! 

166 Elsie. Land of the Madonna ! 
How beautiful it is ! It seems a garden 

Of Paradise ! 

Prince Henry. Nay, of Gethsemane 

To thee and me, of passion and of prayer ! 
170 Yet once of Paradise. Long years ago 

I wandered as a youth among its bowers, 

And never from my heart has faded quite 

Its memory, that, like a summer sunset. 

Encircles with a ring of purple light 
176 All the horizon of my youth. 

Guide. O friends ! 

The days are short, the way before us long ; 

165. Land of the Madonna. Because art and music have nowhere been ex- 
pressed with deeper fervor in the service of the Roman Catholic Church, 
especially in veneration of the Madonna, than in Italy. 

171. Bowers. An autobiographical reminiscence. Longfellow's first trip 
to Europe, in 1827-29, included a year in Italy, to which he devoted a part of 
Outre-Mer. 



154 LONGFELLOW. 

We must not linger, if we think to reach 
The inn at Belinzona before vespers ! 
They pass on. 



AT THE FOOT OF THE ALPS. 

A halt under the trees at noon. 

180 Prince Henry. Here let us pause a moment in 
the trembling- 
Shadow and sunshine of the roadside trees, 
And, our tired horses in a group assembling, 
Inhale long draughts of this delicious breeze. 
Our fleeter steeds have distanced our attendants ; 
186 They lag behind us witji a slower pace ; 

We will await them under the green pendants 
Of the great willows in this shady place. 
Ho, Barbarossa ! how thy mottled haunches 
Sweat with this canter orer hill and glade ! 
190 Stand still, and let these overhanging branches 
Fan thy hot sides and comfort thee with shade ! 
Elsie. What a delightful landscai3e spreads be- 
fore us. 
Marked with a whitewashed cottage here and there ! 
And, in luxuriant garlands drooping o'er us, 
196 Blossoms of grape-vines scent the sunny air. 

Prince Henry. Hark ! what sweet sounds are 
those, whose accents holy 
Fill the warm noon with music sad and sweet ! 

Elsie. It is a band of pilgrims, moving slowly 
On their long journey, with uncovered feet. 

179. Belinzona. A Swiss city with the aspect of an Italian town, near the 
head of Lago Maggiore ; one of the three capitals of the Canton of Tessin or 
Ticino, commanding strategically the route from Lombardy to Germany. 

198, Pilgrims. Longfellow describes such a procession, with all the ac- 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 155 

Pilgrims, chanting the Hymn of St. Hildehert. 
200 Me receptet Sion ilia, 

Sion David, urbs tranqiiilla, 
Cujus faber auctor lucis, 
Cujus portae lignum crucis, 
Cujus claves lingua Petri, 
205 Cujus cives semper laeti, 

Cujus muri lapis vivus, • 

Cujus custos Rex festivus ! 
Lucifer, as a Friar in the procession. Here am 
I, too, in the pious band, 
In the garb of a barefooted Carmelite dressed ! 
210 The soles of my feet are as hard and tanned 

cessories of mediaeval pilgrims, in Oi(h~e-3fer, 338. It was customary for the 
pilgrims to associate in companies, and they strove to shorten the way by 
song and music, sometimes hiring a few singers and one or two musicians to 
accompany them. Pilgrimages were generally made in the spring, often be- 
ginning during Lent. The author of Scenes and Characters of the Iliddle 
Ages quotes interesting narratives concerning the dress and conduct of pil- 
grims (pp. 176-94). 

200. St. Hildebert. A French prelate, born in 1057 ; archbishop of Tours, 
1125 ; died 1134. He composed in exile more than 10,000 lines of versification 
of Scripture and legends of the saints. This hymn is taken from a prayer to 
the Three Persons of the Trinity, and was translated by William Crashaw (v. 
introduction to the poems of his son, Richard Crashaw, n. xxxviii.) : — 
" In Sion lodge me. Lord, for pity, 

Sion, David's kingly city, 

Built by him that 's only good ; 

Whose gates be of the cross's wood, 

Whose keys are Christ's undoubted word ; 

Whose dwellers fear none but the Lord, 

Whose walls are stone, strong, quick, and bright ; 

Whose keeper is the Lord of light." 
The whole poem, in the original, will be found in Trench's Sacred Latin 
Poetry, 323. 

209. Carmelite. One of the mendicant orders, claiming to have been 
founded by Elijah on Mt. Carmel. Its mstitution dates from the beginning 
of the thirteenth century, and from the color of their habit Carmelites were 
called White Friars in England. 

210. Tanned. Pilgrims who were sent on a pilgrimage as a penance, like 
Friar Cutlibert, were generally ordered to go barefooted, and others volun- 



156 LONGFELLOW, 

As the conscience of old Pope Hildebrand, 

The Holy Satan, who made the wives 

Of the bishops lead such shameful lives. 

All day long I beat my breast, 
215 And chant with a most particular zest 

The Latin hymns, which I understand 

Quite as well, I think, as the rest. 

And »t night such lodging in barns and sheds, 

Such a hurly-burly in country inns, 
220 Such a clatter of tongues in empty heads, 

Such a helter-skelter of prayers and sins ! 

Of all the contrivances of the time 

For sowing broadcast the seeds of crime, 

There is none so pleasing to me and mine 
226 As a pilgrimage to some far-off shrine ! 

Prince Henry. If from the outward man we 
judge the inner. 

And cleanliness is godliness, I fear 

tarily imitated them in order to heighten the merit and efficacy of their good 
deed. The special insignia of a pilgrim were the staff and scrip, the latter 
being a small bag, slung at the side by a cord over the shoulder, to contain 
the pilgrim's food and his few necessaries. 

212. Holy Satan. Sanctus Sa(a7ias, a soubriquet apphed to Hildebrand 
(Gregory VII.), by his friend Peter Damian, " half in jest," says Dean Trench, 
"because with no misgiving but that his cause was the cause of God, he 
trampled without pity or remorse on human hearts and their strongest affec- 
tions, in enforcing the decree of the celibacy of the clergy." {Led. on Me- 
dicBval Church History, 130.) There is also an allusion to the fact that Greg- 
ory was the first to exact the application of the title Sanctus to the Pope, 
whence the modern " His Holiness." 

213. Lives. Hildebrand exhorted the people to withdraw their obedience 
from married priests, which produced a fierce persecution of the offending 
pastors. Their wives were driven forth with scorn, and many crimes and much 
suffering followed the disruption. (Lecky's Hist, of Europ. 3f orals, ii. ch. 5.) 

223. Crime. Milman {Hist. Lai. Christ., Bk. vii. ch. 6) alludes to the ir- 
regularities attending pilgrimages, and quotes the saying of St. Jerome against 
them, that Heaven was as near Britain as Palestine. 

227. Cleanliness is godliness. Quoted in a sermon by John Wesley ; this 
thought may be traced to rabbinical writers, {v. Familiar Quotations, 309.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 167 

A hopeless reprobate, a hardened sinner, 

Must be that Carmelite now passing near. 
230 Lucifer. There is my German Prince again, 

Thus far on his journey to Salern, 

And the lovesick girl, whose heated brain 

Is sowing the cloud to reap the rain ; 

But it 's a long road that has no turn ! 
235 Let them quietly hold their way, 

I have also a part in the play. 

But first I must act to my heart's content 

This mummery and this merriment, 

And drive this motley flock of sheep 
240 Into the fold, where drink and sleep 

The jolly old friars of Benevent. 

Of a truth, it often provokes me to laugh 

To see these beggars hobble along. 

Lamed and maimed, and fed upon chaff, 
246 Chanting their wonderful piff and paff. 

And, to make up for not understanding the song, 

Singing it fiercely, and wild, and strong ! 

Were it not for my magic garters and staff. 

And the goblets of goodly wine I quaff, 
250 And the mischief I make in the idle throng, 

I should not continue the business long. 

241, BeneventOy a city of Greek origin, was first called by the Romans 
by the inauspicious name of Maleventum. It is on the Appian Way, forty- 
five miles northeast of Naples ; the capital of a former province of Benevento 
in Campania. 

248. 3Iagic garters. They were made of the skin of a young hare cut into 
strips, between which was sewed the herb called motherwort, cut when the 
sun was entering Capricorn. The staff was of willow, hollow, and filled with 
the eyes of a young wolf, the tongue and heart of a dog, three green lizards, 
the hearts of three swallows, seven leaves of vervain gathered on St. John's 
Eve, all dried in the sun and placed between two papers sprinkled w^ith pulver- 
ized saltpetre. Such a staff was warranted to protect the owner from robbers 
and wild beasts, and to procure him a good reception on his journey. 



158 LONGFELLOW. 

Pilgrims, chanting. 
In hac urbe, lux solennis, 
Ver aeternum, pax perennis ; 
In hac odor implens cselos, 

265 In hac semper festum melos ! 

Prince Henry. Do you observe that monk among 
the train, 
Who pours from his great throat the roaring bass, 
As a cathedral spout pours out the rain, 
And this way turns his rubicund, round face ? 
260 Elsie. It is the same who, on the Strasburg 
square, 
Preached to the people in the open air. 

Prestce Henry. And he has crossed o'er moun- 
tain, field, and fell. 
On that good steed, that seems to bear him well, 
The hackney of the Friars of Orders Gray, 

266 His own stout legs ! He, too, was in the play, 
Both as King Herod and Ben Israel. 

Good morrow. Friar ! 

Friar Cuthbert. Good morrow, noble Sir ! 
Prince Henry. I speak in German, for, unless I 
err, 
270 You are a German. 

Friar Cuthbert. I cannot gainsay you. 

252-55. In — melos. 

Here the light doth never cease, 
Endless Spring and endless peace ; 
Here is music, heaven filling, 
Sweetness evermore distilling. 

Crashaw's Trans. 
264. Orders Gray. The habit of the Franciscans was originally gray ; after 
the first two centuries the color was changed to dark brown. Hence the name 
Gray Friars was given to the buildings of this order in London. Benedictines, 
however, of such houses as Hirschau, wore black, and their buildings in Lon- 
don were called Black Friars ; hence Blackfriars Bridge. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 159 

But by what instinct, or what secret sign, 
Meeting me here, do you straightway divine 
That northward of the Alps my country lies ? 

275 Prince Henry. Your accent, like St. Peter's, 
would betray you. 
Did not your yellow beard and your blue eyes. 
Moreover, we have seen your face before, 
And heard you preach at the Cathedral door 
On Easter Sunday, in the Strasburg square. 

280 We were among the crowd that gathered there, 
And saw you play the Rabbi with great skill, 
As if, by leaning o'er so many years 
To walk with little children, your own will 
Had caught a childish attitude from theirs, 

286 A kind of stooj^ing in its form and gait. 

And could no longer stand erect and straight. 
Whence come you now ? 

Friar Cuthbert. From the old monastery 

Of Hirschau, in the forest; being sent 

290 Upon a pilgrimage to Benevent, 

To see the image of the Virgin Mary, 
That moves its holy eyes, and sometimes speaks. 
And lets the piteous tears run down its cheeks, 
To touch the hearts of the impenitent. 

295 Prince Henry. O, had I faith, as in the days 
gone by, 
That knew no doubt, and feared no mystery ! 

Lucifer, at a distance. Ho, Cuthbert ! Friar 

Cuthbert ! 
Friar Cuthbert. Farewell, Prince ! 
I cannot stay to argue and convince. 

290. Pilgrimage. This is the penance threatened by the abbot (p. 136) ; a 
common form of punishment of clerical or lay sinners. Thus the assassins of 
St. Thomas a Becket expiated their crime by a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 



160 LONGFELLOW. 

300 Prince Henry. This is indeed the blessed Mary's 
land, 

Virgin and Mother of our dear Redeemer ! 

All hearts are touched and softened at her name ; 

Alike the bandit, with the bloody hand, 

The priest, the prince, the scholar, and the peasant, 
305 The man of deeds, the visionary dreamer, 

Pay homage to her as one ever present ! 

And even as children, who have much offended 

A too indulgent father, in great shame, 

Penitent, and yet not daring unattended 
310 To go into his presence, at the gate 

Speak with their sister, and confiding wait 

Till she goes in before and intercedes ; 

So men, repenting of their evil deeds. 

And yet not venturing rashly to draw near 
316 With their requests an angry father's ear, 

Offer to her their prayers and their confession. 

And she for them in heaven makes intercession. 

And if our Faith had given us nothing more 

Than this example of all womanhood, 
320 So mild, so merciful, so strong, so good, 

So patient, peaceful, loyal, loving, pure, 

This were enough to prove it higher and truer 

Than all the creeds the world had known before. 
Pilgrims, chanting afar off, 
Urbs coelestis, urbs beata, 

324-29. Urbs — requiro. 

Blessed town, divinely graced, 
On a rock so strongly placed, 
Thee I see, and thee I long for ; 
Thee I seek, and thee I groan for. 

Crashaw's Trans. 
The last two lines are taken from St. Augustine {De Spiritu et Aniinn), O ci- 
viias sancia, civitas speciosa, de longinqiio te saluto, ad te clamo, te requiro. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 161 

326 Supra petram coUocata, 

Urbs in porta satis tuto 
De longinquo te saluto, 
Te saluto, te suspiro, 
Te affecto, te require ! 

THE INN AT GENOA. 

A terrace overlooking the sea. Night. 
«3o Prince Heney. It is the sea, it is the sea, 

In all its vague immensity, 

Fading and darkening in the distance ! 

Silent, majestical, and slow, 

The white ships haunt it to and fro, 
33B With all their ghostly sails unfurled. 

As phantoms from another world 

Haunt the dim confines of existence ! 

But ah I how few can comprehend 

Their signals, or to what good end 
340 From land to land they come and go ! 

Upon a sea more vast and dark 

The spirits of the dead embark, 

All voyaging to unknown coasts. 

We wave our farewells from the shore, 
346 And they depart, and come no more. 

Or come as phantoms and as ghosts. 

Above the darksome sea of death 
Looms the great life that is to be, 

347. Sea of Death. All nations of Aryan descent believed in the earth- 
encircling Sea or River of Death, which the souls of the departed traversed 
to reach their future home, the Fortunate Islands. Hence the custom of 
committing the dead to float down rivers like the Ganges, Nile, or Rhone. 

11 



162 LONGFELLOW. 

A land of cloud and mystery, 
350 A dim mirage, with shapes of men 

Long dead, and passed beyond om' ken. 

Awe-struck we gaze, and hold our breath 

Till the fair pageant vanisheth, 

Leaving us in perplexity, 
35B And doubtful whether it has been 

A vision of the world unseen. 

Or a bright image of our own 

Against the sky in vapors thrown. 
Lucifer, singing from the sea. Thou didst not 
make it, thou canst not mend it, 
360 But thou hast the power to end it ! 

The sea is silent, the sea is discreet. 

Deep it lies at thy very feet ; 

There is no confessor like unto Death ! 

Thou canst not see him, but he is near ; 
365 Thou needest not whisper above thy breath. 

And he will hear ; 

He will answer the questions. 

The vague surmises and suggestions, 

That fill thy soul with doubt and fear ! 
370 Prince Henry. The fisherman, who lies afloat, 

With shadowy sail, in yonder boat, 

Is singing softly to the Night ! 

But do I comprehend aright 

The meaning of the words he sung 
375 So sweetly in his native tongue ? 

Ah yes ! the sea is still and deep. 

All things within its bosom sleep ! 

The Norsemen placed their heroes' bodies on ships, setting fire to them as they 
floated seaward on the tide. (v. Keary's Outlines^ 276, 295, and Morris's 
Earthly Paradise, — Prologue.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 163 

A single step, and all is o'er ; 

A plunge, a bubble, and no more ; 
380 And thou, dear Elsie, wilt be free 

From martyrdom and agony. 

Elsie, coming from, her chamher upon the terrace. 
The night is calm and cloudless, 

And still as still can be. 

And the stars come forth to listen 
385 To the music of the sea. 

They gather, and gather, and gather, 

Until they crowd the sky, 

And listen, in breathless silence, 

To the solemn litany. 
390 It begins in rocky caverns. 

As a voice that chants alone 

To the pedals of the organ 

In monotonous undertone ; 

And anon from shelving beaches, 
395 And shallow sands beyond. 

In snow-white robes uprising 

The ghostly choirs respond. 

And sadly and unceasing 

The mournful voice sings on, 
400 And the snow-white choirs still answer 

Christe eleison ! 

Prince Henry. Angel of God ! thy finer sense 
perceives 

Celestial and perpetual harmonies ! 

403. Celestial and perpetual harmonies convey an allusion to the ancient 
doctrine of the music or harmony of the spheres which originated with Py- 
thagoras ; he held that the motions of the spheres produced sounds depending 
on their distances and velocities, and as these were determined by the laws of 
harmonical intervals, the notes altogether formed a regular musical scale or 
harmony. These sounds we do not hear, either because we have been accus- 
tomed to them from the first and have had no opportunity of comparing them 
with silence, or because they are so powerful as to exceed our capacities for 



164 LONGFELLOW. 

Thy purer soul, that trembles and believes, 
406 Hears the archangel's trumpet in the breeze, 

And where the forest rolls, or ocean heaves, 

Cecilia's organ sounding in the seas. 

And tongues of prophets sjDeaking in the leaves. 

But I hear discord only and despair, 
410 And whis23ers as of demons in the air ! 

AT SEA. 

Il Padrone. The wind upon our quarter lies, 
And on before the fieshening gale, 
That fills the snow-white lateen sail. 
Swiftly our light felucca flies. 
415 Around, the billows burst and foam ; 
They lift her o'er the sunken rock, 

hearing. To the " finer sense " of angels, they were, however, perceptible. 
The "spheres" were not the heavenly bodies themselves, but crystalline, 
transparent substances in which the bodies were set, and whose daily revolu- 
tion made a celestial music, to which Milton {Hymn to the Naiivity) refers : — 
" Ring out, ye crystal spheres, 
Once bless our humble ears." 
Some have taken the verse, "When the morning-stars sang together," etc. 
{Job xxxviii. 7), as supporting the theory of " the music of the spheres," or 
the Platonic belief that the stars were living creatures, but the expression 
is as metaphorical as Shakespeare's assertion {3Ie7-chant of Venice, v. 1), that 
"not the smallest orb but in his motion like an angel sings." (v. Longfel- 
low's Occultation of Orion.) 

407. Cecilia''s organ. Chaucer's " Tale of the Life of St. Cecile," told by 
the second mm to the Canterbury pilgrims {v. Works, Ri-s^rside Ed. ii. 68), 
was drawn from the life of the saint in the Aurea Legends of Jacobus de 
Voragine. In neither is any mention made of her invention of the organ, 
which is a later legend, due to the introduction of musical instruments in 
pictures of the saint by artists of the fifteenth and following centuries. 

408. Tongues in leaves. Cf . : — 

"Our life . . . 
Finds tongues in trees,'' etc. 

As You Like It, ii. 1. 
413. Lateen. A triangular sail used on vessels in the Mediterranean and 
eastern seas. The felucca is a schooner with a helm which can be applied at 
either end of the vessel, as occasion may require. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 165 

They beat her sides with many a shock, 

And then upon their flowing dome 

They poise her, like a weathercock ! 
420 Between us and the western skies 

The hills of Corsica arise ; 

Eastward, in yonder long, blue line, 

The summits of the Apennine, 

And southward, and still far away, 
425 Salerno, on its sunny bay. 

You cannot see it, where it lies. 

Prince Henry. Ah, would that never more mine 
eyes 

Might see its towers by night or day ! 
Elsie. Behind us, dark and awfully, 
430 There comes a cloud out of the sea. 

That bears the form of a hunted deer, 

With hide of brown, and hoofs of black. 

And antlers lain upon its back. 

And fleeing fast and wild with fear, 
435 As if the hounds were on its track ! 

Prince Henry. Lo ! while we gaze, it breaks and 
falls 

In shapeless masses, like the walls 

Of a burnt city. Broad and red 

The fires of the descending sun 
440 Glare through the windows, and o'erhead, 

Athwart the vapors, dense and dun, 

Long shafts of silvery light arise, 

Like rafters that support the skies ! 

Elsie. See ! from its summit the lurid levin 
445 Flashes downward without warning, 

As Lucifer, son of the morning, 

Fell from the battlements of heaven ! 



166 LONGFELLOW. 

Il Padrone. I must entreat you, friends, below ! 

The angry storm begins to blow, 
450 For the weather changes with the moon. 

All this morning, until noon, 

We had baffling winds, and sudden flaws 

Struck the sea with their cat's-paws. 

Only a little hour ago 
«5 I was whisthng to Saint Antonio 

For a capful of wind to fill our sail, 

And instead of a breeze he has sent a gale. 

Last night I saw Saint Elmo's stars, 

452. Flaws. The word flaw is of Scandinavian origin, and signifies a sudden 
gust of wind, or of snow, rain, or hail, which comes suddenly and as suddenly 
ceases. It is used with that meaning in Hamlet, v . 1 ; Coriolanns, v. 3 ; //. 
Henry IV. iv. 4 ; II. Henry VI. iii. 1 ; and Pericles, iii. 1 ; also in Tennyson's 
Enid. 

453. CaVs-paws. A nautical term, used of a light and occasional breeze 
which ruffles the surface of the sea during weather otherwise calm. 

455. Whistling. As a part of ancient superstition concerning the power of 
evil spirits over rain and tempests, already alluded to (v. p. 105, note), sailors 
seldom whistled on ship-board, esteeming that to be a mocking of the Devil, 
who would therefore m rage stir up the wind. They sometimes, however, 
practised it during a dead calm, and this custom, not uncommon now with 
English sailors, was a direct invocatibn to ' ' the prince of the power of the 
air " to exert himself in their behalf. Later, a saint takes the place of the 
demon, and t\\& padrone whistles to one of the patron saints of travellers, St. 
Antony of Padua, (i'. Baring-Goald's Lives of the Saints, June, 181.) 

458. St. Elmo^s stars. Electric lights seen occasionally on the masts of 
vessels before and after a storm, iv. Horace's Odes, i. 12, 27, and The Tempest, 
i. 2.) They were called by the ancients " Castor and Pollux," from the flames of 
fire which played romid the heads of " the great twin brethren " during the 
Argonautic expedition. Dryden, in the Song of a Scholar and his 3Iistress, 
speaks of St. Hermo's fire, a name derived from St. Erasmus or Elmo, an Italian 
bishop, who suffered martyrdom, A. d. 296, at Formiae, now Mola di Gaeta, to 
whom the cathedral of that city is dedicated, and from whom the castle of St. 
Elmo in Naples is named. Mrs. Jameson (Sacred and Legendary Art, ii. 328) 
says that the saint is famous on the shores of the Mediterr.anean, in Spain, and 
Sicily, where the mariners invoke him against storm and tempest ; but the 
probable connection of his name with the electric light is derived by the Bol- 
landists ( Vita; Sanctorum) from the following tradition : St. Elmo, bishop 
of Burgos, in Spain, started one dark, stormy night, to visit Ranco, bishop of 
Auvergne. Lighting a candle, he gave it to a boy to carry, and bade him lead 
the way. The rain fell in torrents, the winds were furious and gusty, but the 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 167 

With their glimmering lanterns, all at play 
460 On the tops of the masts and the tips of the spars, 
And I knew we should have foul weather to-day. 
Cheerly, my hearties ! yo heave ho ! 
Brail up the mainsail, and let her go 
As the winds will and Saint Antonio ! 

465 Do you see that Livornese felucca, 

That vessel to the windward yonder, 

Running with her gunwale under ? 

I was looking when the wind o'ertook her. 

She had all sail set, and the only wonder 
470 Is, that at once the strength of the blast 

Did not carry away her mast. 

She is a galley of the Gran Duca, 

That, through the fear of the Algerines, 

Convoys those lazy brigantines, 
475 Laden with wine and oil from Lucca. 

Now all is ready, high and low ; 

Blow, blow, good Saint Antonio ! 

Ha ! that is the first dash of the. rain, 

With a sprinkle of spray above the rails, 

candle burned brilliantly and without flickering, though neither inclosed in a 
lantern nor otherwise protected. Hence the Spaniards call the electric light 
on mast-heads Corpos Santo, and say, "It is St. Elmo." 

465. Livornese. Of Livorno, called in English Leghorn, an Italian port ; it 
was a small fishing village of a few hmidred inhabitants until the middle of 
the sixteenth century, when it mherited the commerce of Pisa, and was en- 
couraged by the Medici. 

472. Gran Duca. The Grand Duke of Tuscany. Tuscany, the old Etruria, 
was divided into powerful commonwealths in the Middle Ages, but was united 
under the family of the Medici, Cosmo dei Medici being made grand duke by 
the pope in 1569. 

475. Lucca. Lucca was one of these aristocratic commonwealths, and was 
an independent duchy until 1799. Upon the fall of Napoleon it was annexed 
to Tuscany, one sixth of the territory of which is planted with vines and olives. 
Frederick II. was the first to make a profit out of the industries of liis subjects 
by monopolies, trading in the corn and olive-oil of his Italian states. 



168 LONGFELLaW. 

480 Just enough to moisten our sails, 
And make them ready for the strain. 
See how she leaps, as the blasts o'ertake her, 
And speeds away with a bone in her mouth 1 
Now keep her head toward the south, 

485 And there is no danger of bank or breaker. 
With the breeze behind us, on we go ; 
Not too much, good Saint Antonio ! 



VI. 

THE SCHOOL OF SALERNO.* 

A travelling Scholastic affixing his Theses to the gate of the College, t 
Scholastic. There, that is my gauntlet, my ban- 
ner, my shield, 

* Salerno^ a seaport of 20,000 inhabitants, on the Gulf of that name, thirty- 
three miles southeast of Naples, occupies the site of an ancient Greek colony 
and of the Roman city Salernum, founded 194 b. c, to check the Picentines. 
It was the seat of a bishopric in the sixth century, and, at the end of the sev- 
enth, of a Benedictine monastery, this order having taken an advanced position 
in the monastic study of medicine, which previously was a mixture of magic 
and superstition. From that time a school grew up, in which medicine was 
taught, as well as law and philosophy, but the "University of Salerno," which 
was entirely under secular control, was founded in 1150. In the ninth century 
Salernitan physicians were spoken of, and the city was known as Civitas Hip- 
pocraiica, and was called later, by Petrarch, "the fountain of medicine," /o7is 
tnedicince. Royal personages resorted to it for treatment, as Duke William 
of Normandy (William the Conqueror), and the Emperor Henry II. It 
reached its highest reputation during the crusades, and had declined by the 
middle of the fourteenth century, being obscured by the fame of the univer- 
sities of Bologna and Parrs, and the foundation of the schools of Naples and 
Montpellier. It was dissolved by an edict of Napoleon m 1811. 

t It was part of the philosophic knight-errantry of the times in which the 
action of this poem is laid, that doctors should travel from school to school, 
inviting discussions, especially on the great conflict between Nominalism and 
Realism. This scholastic is a Nominalist, and is attacking the pantheistic 
ideas of the ReaUsts, of whom John Scotus was a leader, {v. Mihnan's Lat. 
Christ. , Bk. xiv. ch. 3.) 

1. Gauntlet. The glove was employed as a token of a challenge to fight, as a 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 169 

Hung up as a challenge to all the field ! 

One hundred and twenty-five propositions, 

Which I will maintain with the sword of the tongue 
Against all disputants, old and young. 

Let us see if doctors or dialecticians 

Will dare to dispute my definitions, 

Or attack any one of my learned theses. 

Here stand I ; the end shall be as God pleases. 
10 I think I have proved, by profound researches, 

The error of all those doctrines so vicious 

Of the old Areopagite Dionysius, 

That are making such terrible work in the churches, 

By Michael the Stammerer sent from the East, 
15 And done into Latin by that Scottish beast, 

Johannes Duns Scotus, who dares to maintain, 

symbol of the courage of the hand that wore it. Hence to hang up a glove in 
a church was a public challenge, just as a notice aflBjced to a church door is a 
public notice. 

9. Here stand I. Like Luther, at the Diet of Worms, who, when asked if he 
still maintained his position, replied, " Here T stand ; I cannot do otherwise ; 
God help me; Amen." The scholastic affixes his propositions to the gate 
as Luther nailed his theses to the church door of Wittenberg. 

12. Dionysius. Supposed to have been the judge of the court of the Are- 
opagus, before which St. Paul appeared, {v. Acts xvii. 19. ) Certain works of 
the Alexandrian school, written about 500 A. d., were attributed to him, as 
the Book of the Divine Names, and that on the Celestial Hierarchy, to which 
reference has been made. (?;. note to p. 57. ) 

14. 3Iichael the Stammerer succeeded Leo the Armenian as Emperor of 
the East, A. d. 820. He sent to the Western emperor, Louis le Debonnaire, a 
copy of the writings attributed to Dionysius, which were translated into 
Latm by John Scotus Erigena (not Duns Scotus). These writings contained 
oriental ideas purged of pantheism. Erigena, however, did not maintain the 
same reserve as the author, but drew from them a vast system of pantheism. 
(v. Milman, Bk. xiv. ch. 2.) John Scotus Erigena, a native of Ireland (hence 
his name, Scotia being an ancient name of that country), called by Hallam, in 
a literary and philosophical sense, the most remarkable man of the Dark Ages, 
lived in the ninth century. Duns Scotus, born at Dunston, England, from 
whose name the word "dunce " is derived, founder of the school called the 
Scotists, surnamed the Subtle Doctor, from, his skill as a metaphysician, was 
a Franciscan friar, professor at Oxford and Paris in the fourteenth century, 
and the rival of St. Thomas Aquinas. 



170 LONGFELLOW, 

In the face of the truth, the error infernal, 
That the universe is and must be eternal ; 
At first laying down, as a fact fundamental, 

20 That nothing with God can be accidental ; 
Then asserting that God before the creation 
Could not have existed, because it is plain 
That, had he existed, he would have created ; 
Which is begging the question that should be de- 
bated, 

26 And moveth me less to anger than laughter. 
All nature, he holds, is a resiDiration 

18. Eternal. The struggle between the Nominalists and Realists concerned 
itself with things as they are grouped under common names on the ground of 
qualities common to them all, hence called Universals. Is the universal a 
simple conception of the mind, or an external and substantial reality ? Is it 
a name or an entity ? To the Nominalist universals were names, to the Realist 
they were realities. Botli sides were denounced at different times as heter- 
odox, but a modified nominalism finally gained the day. {v. Trench's Led. on 
3fed. Ch. Hist. 2GS. ) That the universe is eternal is derived from Aristotle, 
who maintained that motion is eternal, for if the motion had a beginning, 
there must already have been some motion when it came into existence ; for 
transition from potentiality into actuality, and from non-existence into ex- 
istence, always implies motion ; if there had been a previous motion it must 
have been without a beginning, or else the series would have to be carried 
back ad infinitum. On the same principle he maintained that time is eter- 
nal, for time is related to and connected with motion ; there is no motion 
except in time, and time can only be perceived by motion. In this way Aris- 
totle proved the eternity of the universe, but these doctrines were considered 
pantheistic at a certain period of tlie Middle Ages, and the worlis of this plai- 
losopher were condemned at a synod held in Paris in 1209. 

20. Accidental. According to Aristotle none of the, products of nature are 
due to chance. That which is due to chance does not reappear constantly nor 
frequently, but all products of nature do reappear either constantly or at least 
freqviently. If the parts of the universe are not accidental, the whole imiverse 
cannot be considered as the result of chance. Natural products, again, are 
not accidental ; because they are essential, i. e. there is a cause which neces- 
sitates that they should be in their actual condition, and on account of that 
cause they are just as they in reality are. 

26. All nature. A caricature of the pantheistic reasoning of tlie Realists. 
Pantheistic mysticism acquired in the Middle Ages an extraordinary popular- 
ity, to which the religious feeling excited by the Black Death contributed. 
Lecky calls the writings attributed to Dionysius, sometimes called " Pseudo- 
Dionysius," "the Bible of Mysticism." {Hist, of Rationalism in Europe., 344.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 171 

Of the Spirit of God, who, in breathing, hereafter 
Will inhale it into his bosom again. 
So that nothing but God alone will remain. 
30 And therein he contradicteth himself ; 

For he opens the whole discussion by stating, 

That God can only exist in creating. 

That question I think I have laid on the shelf ! 

He goes out. Two Doctors come in disputing, and followed hy pu- 
pils.* 

Doctor Serafino. I, with the Doctor Seraphic, 
maintain, 
36 That a word which is only conceived in the brain 
Is a type of eternal Generation ; 
The spoken word is the Incarnation. 

Doctor Cherubino. What do I care for the 
Doctor Seraphic, 
With all his wordy chaffer and traffic ? 
40 Doctor Serafixo. You make but a paltry show 
of resistance ; 
Universals have no real existence ! 

Doctor Cherubino. Your words are but idle and 
empty chatter ; 
Ideas are eternally joined to matter ! 

* It was incumbent upon every doctor or master, even before the twelfth 
century, to hold from time to time a public disputation in the university, at 
which the doctors, bachelors, and students were present. The presiding 
doctor took from the text-book a certain passage, which was discussed by the 
bachelors, the doctor pronouncing a decision. These discussions sometimes 
lasted a fortnight, and were conducted in Latin. 

34. Doctor Seraphic. St. Bonaventura, an eminent scholastic theologian, 
born in Italy in 1221 ; called the Seraphic from his fervid eloquence. Except 
Thomas Aquinas he is the most celebrated doctor of the Middle Ages. By the 
two all previous theological labors were reduced to a system. 

42. Cherubino. Dr. Serafino represents the Nominalists ; Dr. Cherubino 
the Realists. The Nominalists were often condemned as atheists, the Realists 
as pantheists. Thus John Huss was condemned as a Realist, which In his 
time was heresy. ' 



172 LONGFELLOW. 

Doctor Serafino. May the Lord have mercy on 
your position, 
45 You wretched, wrangling culler of herbs ! 

Doctor Cherubixo. May he send your soul to 
eternal perdition, 
For your Treatise on the Irregular Verbs ! 

They rush outfighting. Two Scholars come in.* 
First Scholar. Monte Cassino, then, is your 
College. 
What think you of ours here at Salern ? 
60 Second Scholar. To tell the truth, I arrived so 
lately, 
I hardly yet have had time to discern. 
So much, at least, I am bound to acknowledge : 
The air seems healthy, the buildings stately, 
And on the whole I like it greatly. 
65 First Scholar. Yes, the air is sweet ; the Ca- 
labrian hills 
Send us down puffs of mountain air ; 
And in summer-time the sea-breeze fills 

* These were the "undergraduates " of the universities, candidates for the 
bachelor's degree. The next degree was that of licentiate, giving the holder 
a license to teach ; then came that of doctor or master, master being a title 
of courtesy, doctor that of a profession, as, " Magister Johannes, doctor in 
theologia." 

48. Monte Cassino. A celebrated Benedictine monastery, on the summit 
of a mountain half-way between Rome and Naples, founded by St. Benedict 
in 529, the parent of all the monasteries of that order. For its services in 
preserving the classic authors and discovering the writings of such as Pliny, 
Sallust, and Cicero, and in maintaining the study of literature during the 
Dark Ages, it was exempted from confiscation by the Italian government in 
1873. {v., however, Symonds's Renaissance in Italy, pt. ii. 133.) A school 
of medicine was established there before the ninth century. Most of the sick 
who resorted to it sought merely to touch the relics of St. Matthew, the pa- 
tron saint of the convent ; but they received there, in addition, the ministra- 
tions of a community which had made a serious study of medicine, {v. 
Longfellow's Translation of the Paradiso, Canto XXII. notes, and his poem 
Monte Cassino.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 173 

With its coolness cloister, and court, and square. 
Then at every season of the year 
60 There are crowds of guests and travellers here ; 
Pilgrims, and mendicant friars, and traders 
From the Levant, with figs and wine, 
And bands of wounded and sick Crusaders, 
Coming back from Palestine. 
65 Second Scholar. And what are the studies you 
pursue ? 
What is the course you here go through ? 

First Scholar. The first three years of the col- 
lege course 
Are given to Logic alone, as the source 
Of all that is noble, and wise, and true. 
70 Second Scholar. That seems rather strange, I 
must confess, 
In a Medical School ; yet, nevertheless, 
You doubtless have reasons for that. 

First Scholar. O yes ! 

For none but a clever dialectician 
75 Can hope to become a great physician ; 
That has been settled long ago. 

61. Pilgrims. The situation of Salerno, lying towards the south, backed by 
wooded mountains covered with medicinal herbs and supplied with excellent 
water, was noted in ancient times for its salubrity, and pilgrimages of the 
sick began to be made to it as early as the beginning of the ninth century. 
Being the capital of a province and one of the strongholds of the House of 
Hohenstaufen, it shared the activity of the crusades, particularly of the one 
contemporary with the action of this poem, under Frederick II. 

68. Logic. The poet here quotes from the rules established for the school 
of Salerno by the Emperor Frederick, which will be found epitomized in 
Sprengel's Geschichte der Arzneikunde, ii. ch. 7. In the mediaeval universi- 
ties the studies of the first course, the Trivimn, included grammar, logic, and 
rhetoric, being those which concerned man in his relations to his fellow-man. 
Those of the Quadrivium, the higher division of the seven liberal arts, were 
music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, teaching the student concerning 
the material world. They all referred more or less directly to theology. 



174 LONGFELLOW. 

Logic makes an important part 

Of the mystery of the healing art ; 

For without it how could you hope to show 
80 That nobody knows so much as you know ? 

After this there are five years more 

Devoted wholly to medicine, 

With lectures on chirurgical lore, 

And dissections of the bodies of swine, 
85 As likest the human form divine. 

Second Scholar. What are the books now most 

in vogue ? 
First Scholar. Quite an extensive catalogue ; 

Mostly, however, books of our own ; 

As Gariopontus' Passionarius, 
90 And the writings of Matthew Platearius ; 

And a volume universally known 

As the Regimen of the School of Salern, 

For Robert of Normandy written in terse 

And very elegant Latin verse. 

84. Dissections. The general plan of treatment taught at the school of Sa- 
lerno was dietetic rather than pharmaceutical, although the art of preparing 
drugs had reached a high degree of precision there. Anatomy was but little 
regarded, but demonstrations of the structure of the body were given on 
swine, according to the directions of Galen. 

89. Gariopontus. A professor of the school, who lived in the eleventh cen- 
tury. The works published under his name at Lyons in 1525, including the 
Passionarius, were written in a barbarous mixture of Greek, Arabic, and 
Latin. 

90. 3fattheiv Platearius, first of a family of physicians bearing that name, 
lived at Salerno in the twelfth century, and was called one of the most dis- 
tinguished of its professors ; he was the author of the Pratica, or medical 
compendium. These teachers flourished before the introduction of the Ara- 
bian system of medicme. 

92. Regimen. The maxims of the school of Salerno were collected and 
abridged in the form of aphorisms in leonine verse in 1110, and were dedicated 
to Robert, son of William the Conqueror, who visited Salerno for the cure of 
a wound received in Palestine. These aphorisms remained in vogue long after 
the school had disappeared. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 175 

95 Each of these writings has its turn. 

And when at length we have finished these, 

Then comes the struggle for degrees, 

With all the oldest and ablest critics ; 

The public thesis and disputation, 
100 Question, and answer, and explanation 

Of a passage out of Hippocrates, 

Or Aristotle's Analytics. 

There the triumphant M agister stands ! 

A book is solemnly placed in his hands, 
105 On which he swears to follow the rule 

And ancient forms of the good old School ; 

To report if any confectionarius 

Mingles his drugs with matters various. 

And to visit his patients twice a day, 
110 And once in the night, if they live in town, 

And if they are poor, to take no pay. 

101. Hippocrates. The most eminent physician of antiquity ; born in the isl- 
and of Cos, 4G0 B. c. He was the author of several works, and substituted ex- 
periment and observation for speculative theories. "The treasures of Gre- 
cian medicine," says Gibbon, " had been communicated to tlie Arabian 
colonies of Africa, Spain, and Sicily ; and in the intercourse of peace and war, 
a spark of knowledge had been kindled and cherished at Salerno, an illustri- 
ous city, in which the men were honest, and the women beautiful." {Decline 
and Fall, ch. Ivi.) 

102. Analytics. The works of Aristotle were also translated by the Ara- 
bians, after 1128, and thus introduced in the Latin language to Western sci- 
ence, for until the thirteenth century the Middle Ages were unacquainted 
with Greek ; although at first repudiated by the Church, these writings were 
soon placed by the Schoolmen almost on a level with the Fathers, so that 
their author was called. " the philosopher," without being named, " Master of 
those who know," and the forerunner of Christ in the kingdom of nature. 
His reputation declined with that of the Schoolmen. 

111. Take no pay. These were among the rules prescribed by Frederick II. 
No one could practise medicine during this time in the Kingdom of Naples 
without a rigid examination at the School of Salerno, where he promised on oath 
to visit the sick twice a day, if necessary, and not to combine with druggists to 
raise the price of medicme. Following a successful examination the candi- 
date was admitted to the degree of master, and received a license to practise, 
as here described. 



176 LONGFELLOW. 

Having faithfully promised these, 

His head is crowned with a laurel crown ; 

A kiss on his cheek, a ring on his hand, 
iiB The Magister Artium et Physices 

Goes forth from the school like a lord of the land. 

And now, as we have the whole morning before us, 

Let us go in, if you make no objection. 

And listen awhile to a learned prelection 
120 On Marcus Aurelius Cassiodorus. 

They go in. Enter Lucifer as a Doctor. 
Lucifer. This is the great School of Salern ! 

A land of wrangling and of quarrels. 

Of brains that seethe, and hearts that burn, 

Where every emulous scholar hears, 
126 In every breath that comes to his ears, 

The rustling of another's laurels ! 

The air of the place is called salubrious ; 

The neighborhood of Vesuvius lends it 

An odor volcanic, that rather mends it, 
130 And the buildings have an asj^ect lugubrious, 

That inspires a feeling of awe and terror 

Into the heart of the beholder. 

And befits such an ancient homestead of error, 

Where the old falsehoods moulder and smoulder, 
136 And yearly by many hundred hands 

Are carried away, in the zeal of youth, 

And sown like tares in the field of truth. 

To blossom and ripen in other lands. 

What have we here, affixed to the gate ? 

120. Cassiodorus. A Latin historian and statesman, born about 470 a. d. ; 
was the chief minister of Theodoric the Goth ; wTote a history of that people ; 
founded, after his retirement from public life, the abbey of Viviers, and com- 
posed treatises on the liberal arts for the school which he established there — 
perhaps the first Church School in Europe. 



„ THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 177 

140 The challenge of some scholastic wight, 

Who wishes to hold a public debate 

On sundry questions wrong or right ! 

Ah, now this is my great delight ! 

For I have often observed of late 
145 That such discussions end in a fight. 

Let us see what the learned wag maintains 

With such a prodigal waste of brains. 
Reads. 

" Whether angels in moving from place to place 

Pass through the intermediate space. 
160 Whether God himself is the author of evil, 

Or whether that is the work of the Devil. 

When, where, and wherefore Lucifer fell, 

And whether he now is chained in hell," 

I think I can answer that question well ! 
166 So long as the boastful human mind 

Consents in such mills as this to grind, 

I sit very firmly upon my throne ! 

Of a truth it almost makes me laugh, 

To see men leaving the golden gTain 
160 To gather in piles the pitiful chaff 

That old Peter Lombard thrashed with his brain, 

145. Discussions. Learned doctors disputed at all hours and in all places, 
even coming to blows upon such questions as whether one angel illumines 
another ; whether a lower angel dare to speak to one of higher degree ; whether 
the language of one angel is known to another ; how many angels can stand on 
the point of a needle ; whether we are bound to love a possible angel more 
than an actually existing fly, etc. 

161. Peter Lombard. Bom in Lombard y in the twelfth century, studied at 
Paris, of which he became bishop ; died IIGO. His cliief work, The Four 
Books of Sentences, is a collection of the opinions of the Fathers upon the- 
ology and philosophy. It became a standard of authority, and was approved 
by the fourth Lateran Council, 121.5. This and the Summa of Thomas Aqui- 
nas furnished the texts of the learned world and the Church. 

12 



178 LONGFELLOW. 

To have it caught up and tossed again 
On the horns of the Dumb Ox of Cologne ! 

But my guests approach ! there is in the air 
16B A fragrance, like that of the Beautiful Garden 

Of Paradise, in the days that Avere ! 

An odor of innocence, and of prayer, 

And of love, and faith that never fails, 

Such as the fresh young heart exhales 
170 Before it begins to wither and harden ! 

I cannot breathe such an atmosphere ! 

My soul is filled with a nameless fear, 

That, after all my trouble and pain, 

After all my restless endeavor, 
176 The youngest, fairest soul of the twain. 

The most ethereal, most divine, 

Will escape from my hands forever and ever. 

But the other is already mine ! 

Let him live to corrupt his race, 
180 Breathing among them, with every breath, 

Weakness, selfishness, and the base 

And pusillanimous fear of death. 

I know his nature, and I know 

162. Tossed again. Because St. Tliomas Aquinas wrote Texfus Sententi- 
arum, a commentary upon, and an amplification of, the Liber Sententiurum of 
Peter Lombard. 

163. Dumb Ox, or "the Dumb Ox of Sicily," was the nickname given to 
Thomas Aquinas by his fellow- students of Cologne, because, while they dis- 
puted loudly, he remained in his place •without a word ; his tutor, Albertus 
Magnus, reproved them, however, saying that the " Dumb Ox " would one 
day fill the world with his lowing. He was afterward called the Angelic 
Doctor, and the Universal Doctor, from the extent of his learning, the Father 
of Monastic Theology, the Fifth Father of the Church, etc. He was the legis- 
lator of the mediasval Church and the great light of the Dominican order, as 
St. Bonaventura of the Franciscans. Born at Aquino, Italy, in 1225, he died 
at the age of forty-eight, (v. Milraan, Laf. Christ., Bk. xiv. ch. iii.) 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 179 

That of all who in my ministry 
185 Wander the great earth to and fro, 
And on my errands come and go, 
The safest and subtlest are such as he. 

Enter Prince Henry and Elsie, with attendants. 
Prixce Henry. Can you direct us to Friar An- 

gelo? 
LuCTFER. He stands before you. 
190 Prince Henry. Then you know our purpose. 
I am Prince Henry of Hoheneck, and this 
The maiden that I spake of in my letters. 

Lucifer. It is a very grave and solemn business ! 
We must not be precipitate. Does she 
195 Without compulsion, of her own free will, 
Consent to this ? 

Prince Henry. Against all opposition, 
Against all prayers, entreaties, protestations. 
She will not be persuaded. 
200 Lucifer. That is strange ! 

Have you thought well of it ? 

Elsie. I come not here 

To argue but to die. Your business is not 
To question, but to kill me. I am ready. 
206 I am impatient to be gone from here 
Ere any thoughts of earth disturb again 
The spirit of tranquillity within me. 

Prince Henry. Would I had not come here ! 
Would I were dead. 
And thou wert in thy cottage in the forest, 
210 And hadst not known me ! Why have I done this ? 
Let me go back and die. 

Elsie. It cannot be ; 

Not if these cold flat stones on which we tread 



180 LONGFELLOW. 

Were coulters heated white, and yonder gateway 
216 Flamed like a furnace with a sevenfold heat. 

I must fulfil my purpose. 

Prince Henry. I forbid it ! 

Not one step farther. For I only meant 

To put thus far thy courage to the proof. 
^^° It is enough. I, too, have strength to die, 

For thou hast taught me ! 

Elsie. O my Prince ! remember 

Your promises. Let me fulfil my errand. 

You do not look on life and death as I do. 
225 There are two angels, that attend unseen 

Each one of us, and in great books record 

Our good and evil deeds. He who writes down 

The good ones, after every action closes 

His volume, and ascends with it to God. 
230 The other keeps his dreadful day-book open 

Till sunset, that we may repent ; which doing, 

The record of the action fades aw^y. 

And leaves a line of white across the page. 

Now if my act be good, as I believe, 
235 It cannot be recalled. It is already 

Sealed up in heaven, as a good deed accomplished. 

The rest is yours. AVhy wait you ? I am ready. 
To her attendants. 

Weep not, my friends ! rather rejoice with me. 

T shall not feel the pain, but shall be gone, 
240 And you will have another friend in heaven. 

Then start not at the creaking of the door 

Through which I pass. I see what lies beyond it. 
To Prince Henry. 

And you, O Prince ! bear back my benison 

Unto my father's house, and all within it. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 181 

246 This morning in the church I prayed for them, 
After confession, after absokition, 
When my whole soul was white, I prayed for them. 
God will take care of them, they need me not. 
And in your life let my remembrance linger, 
250 As something not to trouble and disturb it, 
But to complete it, adding life to life. 
And if at times beside the evening fire 
You see my face among the other faces, 
Let it not be regarded as a ghost 
266 That haunts your house, but as a guest that loves 
you. 
Nay, even as one of your own family. 
Without whose presence there were something 

wanting. 
I have no more to say. Let us go in. 

Prince Henry. Friar Angelo ! I charge you on 
your life, 
260 Believe not what she says, for she is mad, 
And comes here not to die, but to be healed. 
Elsie. Alas ! Prince Henry ! 
Lucifer. Come with me ; this way. 

Elsie goes in with Lucifer, ivho thrusts Prince Henry back 
and closes the door. 

Prince Henry. Gone ! and the light of all my 

life gone with her ! 

266 A sudden darkness falls upon the world ! 

O, what a vile and abject thing am I, 

That purchase length of days at such a cost ! 

Not by her death alone, but by the death 

Of all that 's good and true and noble in me ! 

270 All manhood, excellence, and self-respect. 

All love, and faith, and hope, and heart are dead ! 



182 LONGFELLOW. 

All my divine nobility of nature 
By this one act is forfeited forever. 
I am a Prince in nothing but in name ! 
To the attendants. 
278 Why did you let this horrible deed be done ? 
Why did you not lay hold on her, and keep her 
From self-destruction ? Angelo ! murderer ! 
Struggles at the door hut cannot open it. 
Elsie, within. Farewell, dear Prince ! farewell I 
Prince Henry. Unbar the door ! 

280 Lucifer. It is too late ! 

Prince Henry. It shall not be too late ! 

They hurst the door open and rush in. 



THE FARM-HOUSE IN THE ODENWALD. 

Ursula spinning. Summer afternoon. A tahle spread. 
Ursula. I have marked it well, — it must be 
true, — 

Death never takes one alone, but two ! 

Whenever he enters in at a door, 
285 Under roof of gold or roof of thatch, 

He always leaves it upon the latch, 

And comes again ere the year is o'er. 

Never one of a household only ! 

Perhaps it is a mercy of God, 
290 Lest the dead there under the sod, 

In the land of strangers, should be lonely ! 

Ah me ! I think I am lonelier here ! 

It is hard to go, — but harder to stay ! 

Were it not for the children, I should pray 
295 That Death would take me within the year ! 

And Gottlieb ! — he is at work all day, 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 183 

In the sunny field, or the forest murk, 

But I know that his thoughts are far away, 

I know that his heart is not in his work ! 
300 And when he comes home to me at night 

He is not cheery, but sits and sighs, 

And I see the great tears in liis eyes. 

And try to be cheerful for his sake. 

Only the children's hearts are light. 
305 Mine is weary, and ready to break. 

God help us ! I hope we have done right ; 

We thought we were acting for the best ! 
Looking through the open door. 

Who is it coming under the trees ? 

A man in the Prince's livery dressed ! 
310 He looks about him with doubtful face, 

As if uncertain of the place. 

He stops at the beehives ; — now he sees 

The garden gate ; — he is going past ? 

Can he be afraid of the bees ? 
316 No ; he is coming in at last ! 

He fills my heart with strange alarm ! 
Enter a Forester. 
Forester.* Is this the tenant Gottlieb's farm ? 
Ursula. This is his farm, and I his wife. 

Pray sit. What may your business be ? 

* In the early Middle Ages when a forest was legally a wooded tract set apart 
for the king's pleasure, in which forest law was administered in forest courts, 
to the exclusion of the common law, a forester was an officer who was sworn 
to preserve the beasts and birds of the forest, chase and warren. In modern 
Germany, the forest service is a department of state, filled by youth of good 
family, who are specially trained, at the eight or more forest academies situ- 
ated in different parts of the empire and controlled by a central office in Ber- 
lin, in the science of sylviculture, and the economical management of woodland. 

317. Tenant. The condition of the German peasantry varied at different 
times during the Middle Ages. {v. Freytag's Pictures of German Life, second 
series, I. ch. 1.) 



184 LONGFELLOW. 

S20 Forester. News from the Prince ! 

Ursula. Of death or life ? 

Forester. You put your questions eagerly ! 
Ursula. Answer me, then ! How is the Prince ? 
Forester. I left him only two hours since 
325 Homeward returning down the river, 
As strong and well as if God, the Giver, 
Had given him back his youth again. 

Ursula, despairing. Then Elsie, my poor child, 

is dead ! 
Forester. That, my good woman, I have not said. 
330 Don't cross the bridge till you come to it, 
Is a proverb old, and of excellent wit. 

Ursula. Keep me no longer in this pain ! 
Forester. It is true your daughter is no more ; — 
That is, the peasant she was before. 
336 Ursula. Alas ! I am simple and lowly bred, 
I am poor, distracted, and forlorn. 
And it is not well that you of the court 
Should mock me thus, and make a sport 
Of a joyless mother whose child is dead, 
340 For you, too, were of mother born ! 

Forester. Your daughter lives, and the Prince 
is well ! 
You will learn erelong how it all befell. 
Her heart for a moment never failed ; 
But when they reached Salerno's gate, 
345 The Prince's nobler self prevailed, 
And saved her for a nobler fate. 
And he was healed, in his despair. 
By the touch of St. Matthew's sacred bones ; 

348. St. Matthew^s bones. The Cathedral of Salerno, erected by Robert 
Guiscard, containa an ancient tomb said to hold the remains of St. Matthew, 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 185 

Though I think the long ride in the open air, 
350 That pilgrimage over stocks and stones, 

In the miracle must come in for a share ! 

Ursula. Virgin I who lovest the poor and lowly 

If the loud cry of a mother's heart 

Can ever ascend to where thou art, 
355 Into thy blessed hands and holy 

Receive my prayer of praise and thanksgiving ! 

Let the hands that bore our Saviour bear it 

Into the awful presence of God ; 

For thy feet with holiness are shod, 
360 And if thou bearest it he will hear it. 

Our child who was dead again is living ! 

Forester. I did not tell you she was dead ; 

If you thought so 't was no fault of mine ; 

At this very moment, while I speak, 
365 They are sailing homeward down the Rhine, 

In a splendid barge, with golden prow, 

And decked with banners white and red 

As the colors on your daughter's cheek, 

They call her the Lady Alicia now ; 
370 For the Prince in Salerno made a vow 

That Elsie only would he wed. 

Ursula. Jesu Maria ! what a change ! 

All seems to me so weird and strange ! 

Forester I saw her standing on the deck, 
375 Beneath an awning cool and shady ; 

Her cap of velvet could not hold 

The tresses of her hair of gold, 

which, with those of St. Thecla and other saints, were brought there from 
Paestum in 954, and were believed to perform miraculous cures. As the altar 
of the chapels of the Roman catacombs was the tomb of a martyr, the cus- 
tom was early adopted of placing relics of martyred saints beneath the 
altars of churches, generally the high altar. 



186 LONGFELLOW. 

That flowed and floated like the stream, 

And fell in masses down her neck. 
380 As fair and lovely did she seem 

As in a story or a dream 

Some beautiful and foreign lady. 

And the Prince looked so grand and proud, 

And waved his hand thus to the crowd 
385 That gazed and shouted from the shore, 

All down the river, long and loud. 

Ursula. We shall behold our child once more ; 

She is not dead ! She is not dead ! 

God, listening, must have overheard 
390 The prayers, that, without sound or word, 

Our hearts in secrecy have said ! 

O, bring me to her ; for mine eyes 

Are hungry to behold her face ; 

My very soul within me cries ; 
396 My very hands seem to caress her. 

To see her, gaze at her, and bless her, 

Dear Elsie, child of God and grace ! 
Goes out toward the garden. 
Forester. There goes the good woman out of 
her head ; 

And Gottlieb's supper is waiting here ; 
400 A very capacious flagon of beer, 

And a very portentous loaf of bread. 

One would say his grief did not much oppress him. 

Here 's to the health of the Prince, God bless him I 
He drinks. 

Ha ! it buzzes and stings like a hornet ! 
406 And what a scene there, through the door ! 

The forest behind and the garden before. 

And midway an old man of threescore, 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 187 

With a wife and children that caress him. 
Let me try still further to cheer and adorn it 
410 With a merry, echoing blast of my cornet ! ^ 

Goes out blowing his horn. 



THE CASTLE OF VAUTSBERG ON THE RHINE* 

Prince Henry and Elsie standing on the terrace at evening. 
The sound of bells heard from a distance. 

Prince Henry. We are alone. The wedding 
guests 
Ride down the hill, with plumes and cloaks, 
And the descending dark invests 
The Niederwald, and all the nests 
415 Among its hoar and haunted oaks. 

Elsie. What bells are those, that ring so slow, 
So mellow, musical, and low ? 

Prince Henry. They are the bells of Geisen- 
heim, 
That with their melancholy chime 
420 Ring out the curfew of the sun. 

* Longfellow mentions in the note-book of his first trip to Europe : " I leave 
untold the wonders of the wondrous Rhine, a fascinating theme. Not even 
the beauties of the Vautsberg and the Bingenloch shall detain me." — Outre- 
Mer, 359. 

414. Niederwald. The heights above the vineyards of Riidesheira and Ass- 
mannshausen, opposite Bingeu, now crowned by the national monument to 
united Germany. 

418. Geisenheim, a town on the right bank of the Rhine, above Bingen, 
containing a famous vineyard. Charlemagne's wine-cellar was near Geisen- 
heim. 

420. Curfew, or Couvre-feu ; a Norman ordinance introduced into England 
by William the Conqueror, as a means of preventing conflagrations, which 
were frequent and destructive of life and property. All fires were to be extin- 
guished at eight o'clock in the evening. Hence the bell announcing the hour 
was called the curfew, as in Gray's Elegy. In popular superstition, it was 
the signal for ghosts to walk, to which Prince Henry alludes on p. 191 ; also 
for elvea and fairies, (v. The Tempest, v. 1 ; King Lear, iii. 4 ; Romeo andJu- 



188 LONGFELLOW, 

Elsie. Listen, beloved. 
Prince Henry. They are done ! 

Dear Elsie ! many years ago 
Those same soft bells at eventide 
425 Rang in the ears of Charlemagne, 
As, seated by Fastrada's side 
At Ingelheim, in all his pride 
He heard their sound with secret pain. 
Elsie. Their voices only sj^eak to me 
430 Of peace and deep tranquillity, 
And endless confidence in thee ! 

Prince Henry. Thou knowest the story of her 
ring, 

liet, iv. 4. ) A writer in Notes and Queries says that there is no reason to 
doubt that the early morning bell and the curfew were, in pre-Reformation 
times, used for the morning and evening Angehts. {v. p. 34, note.) The cur- 
few was then called by a Latin equivalent, Ignitegium. It is still rung in 
many villages in England, but has lost its ancient name, being called " the 
eight o'clock bell." 

426. Fastrada was Charlemagne's third wife, the daughter of a Frankish no- 
bleman. Her conduct was oppressive and merciless, and produced a revolt 
of a part of the Emperor's subjects. She died at Frankfort, and her tomb is 
shown in Mayence Cathedral. Charlemagne then married Luitgarde, a Ger- 
man. Othello (iii. 4) gave Desdemona a handkerchief having the talismanic 
power of Fastrada's ring. The story of Charlemagne's magic gem is doubtless 
derived from the Talmudic-Koranic legend of the four jewels given to Solo- 
mon, and set in a signet ring, by which he obtained control of the animal and 
spiritual kingdoms, and which was buried with him, to be guarded by angels 
till the resurrection day. {v. Weil's Biblical Legends, 200.) 

427. Ingelheim, where Charlemagne built a magnificent palace, which he 
decorated with one himdred columns of marble and porphyry, the spoils of 
Roman buildings, and with rich mosaics sent him from Raveima by the Pope, 
is now a small village, one and a half miles from the Rhine. The site of the 
edifice, which was the Emperor's favorite place of residence, is occupied by 
mud hovels and a Jewish cemetery, and the only relics remaining of it are a 
few fragments of pillars in a church. 

432. Ring. The gem here spoken of as Fastrada's ring was given to Charle- 
magne by the Evil One in the form of a serpent, in gratitude for an act of 
justice done his Satanic Majesty by the Emperor. It possessed the power of 
making its owner especially loved, and was therefore prized so higlily by the 
Queen, to whom it was given and who knew its virtues, that she placed it 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 189 

How, when the court went back to Aix, 
Fastrada died ; and how the king 
435 Sat watching by her night and day, 
Till into one of the blue lakes. 
Which water that delicious land, 
They cast the ring, drawn from her hand ; 
And the great monarch sat serene 
440 And sad beside the fated shore. 
Nor left the land forevermore. 
Elsie. That was true love. 
Prince Henry. For him the queen 

Ne'er did what thou hast done for me. 
445 Elsie. Wilt thou as fond and faithful be ? 
Wilt thou so love me after death ? 

Prince Henry. In life's delight, in death's dis- 
may, 

under her tongue in the hour of death. It was buried with her ; owing to its 
power Charlemagne could not separate himself from the body, but had it ex- 
humed, and carried it about with him for eighteen years. At the end of that 
time a courtier gained possession of the precious stone, and Charlemagne's 
affection was at once diverted to him, until, in a fit of anger, the nobleman 
threw it into a hot spring. Powerfully attracted to the spot where the gem 
lay hidden, Charlemagne founded upon it the city of Aix-la-Chapelle, where 
he subsequently resided and was buried. This myth, is one of the mediasval 
stories concerning the gratitude of the Devil towards his benefactors which 
have been collected in Conway's History of Demonology, ii. 395. By another 
myth, the gem was contrived by one of the magi belonging to the court of 
Haroun-al-Raschid, and was given by him, when on an embassy to Charle- 
magne, to Fastrada, who asked for a talisman which should always cause her 
husband to be fascinated by its wearer. There is no doubt that a talisman 
was buried with Charlemagne. It was said to consist of a splinter of the true 
Cross in an antique setting, and was found suspended from his neck when his 
tomb at Aix was opened in 997 ; it was presented by the authorities of that 
city to Napoleon I., who gave it to Hortense, Queen of Holland ; it passed at 
her death in 1837 to her son, afterward Napoleon III., who bequeathed it to 
the Prince Imperial. The Prince, during the expedition to South Africa, wore 
it around his neck, where it was found after his death, June 1, 1879, for al- 
though the Zulus, after killing him, stripped the body, they left the talisman, 
which they thought to be a charm, of which they stand in great dread. It 
was subsequently returned to the Empress', [v. Hnrper''s Weekly, August 2, 
1879, and Harper''s Magazine, Ix. 21.) 



190 LONGFELLOW. 

In storm and sunshine, night and day, 

In health, in sickness, in decay, 
450 Here and hereafter, I am thine ! 

Thou hast Fastrada's ring. Beneath 

The calm, blue waters of thine eyes 

Deep in thy steadfast soul it lies. 

And, undisturbed by tliis world's breath, 
465 With magic light its jewels shine ! 

This golden ring, which thou hast worn 

Upon thy finger since the morn, 

Is but a symbol and a semblance, 

An outward fashion, a remembrance, 
460 Of what thou wearest within unseen, 

O my Fastrada, O my queen ! 

Behold ! the hill-tops all aglow 

With purple and with amethyst ; 

While the whole valley deep below 
465 Is filled, and seems to overflow, 

With a fast-rising tide of mist. 

The evening air grows damp and chill ; 

Let us go in. 

Elsie Ah, not so soon. 

470 See yonder fire ! It is the moon 

Slow rising o'er the eastern hill. 

456. This ring. Mystical significance has from the earliest period been asso- 
ciated with the wedding ring. In its circular continuity, it was accepted as a 
type of eternity, and hence of the stability of the marriage contract. The 
Greek and Roman rings were often inscribed with sentences typical of this 
feeling, and in later times it was customary to engrave within the hoop of the 
ring a motto or " posy," consisting of a rhyaned sentiment, {v. Hamlet, iii. 2.) 
In the Middle Ages, solemn betrothal by ring preceded matrimony. A ring 
was sometimes given when lovers were about to separate for long periods {v. 
Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 2 ; Merchant of Venice, v. 1.) The wedding ring 
was placed on the third finger of the bride's left hand, from a belief as old as 
the Romans that a direct communication existed between that finger and the 
heart. In Russia the contracting parties exchange rings. 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 191 

It glimmers on the forest tips, 

And through the dewy foliage drips 

In little rivulets of light, 
475 And makes the heart in love with night. 

Prince Henry. Oft on this terrace, when the 
day 

Was closing, have I stood and gazed, 

And seen the landscape fade away, 

And the white vapors rise and drown 
480 Hamlet and vineyard, tower and town, 

While far above the hill-tops blazed. 

But then another hand than thine 

Was gently held and clasped in mine ; 

Another head upon my breast 
485 Was laid, as thine is now, at rest. 

Why dost thou lift those tender eyes 

With so much sorrow and surprise ? 

A minstrel's, not a maiden's hand. 

Was that which in my own was pressed. 
490 A manly form usurped thy place, 

A beautiful, but bearded face, 

That now is in the Holy Land, 

Yet in my memory from afar 

Is shining on us like a star.* 
495 But linger not. For while I speak, 

A sheeted spectre white and tall, 

The cold mist climbs the castle wall, 

And lays his hand upon thy cheek ! 
They go in. 
* "Walter von der Vogelweide. 



192 LONGFELLOW. 

EPILOGUE. 

THE TWO RECORDING ANGELS ASCENDING. 

The Angel of Good Deeds, ivith closed book. 
God sent his messenger the rain, 
And said unto the mountain brook, 
" Rise up, and from thy caverns look 
And leap, with naked, snow-white feet, 
5 From the cool hills into the heat 
Of the broad, arid plain." 

God sent his messenger of faith. 

And whispered in the maiden's heart, 

" Rise up, and look from where thou art, 
10 And scatter with unselfish hands 

Thy freshness on the barren sands ' 

And solitudes of Death." 

O beauty of holiness. 

Of self-forgetfulness, of lowliness ! 
15 power of meekness. 

Whose very gentleness and weakness 

Are like the yielding, but irresistible air ! 

Upon the pages 

Of the sealed volume that I bear, 
20 The deed divine 

Is written in characters of gold, 

That never shall grow old, 

But through all ages 

Burn and shine, 
25 With soft effulgence ! 

O God ! it is thy indulgence 

That fills the world with the bliss 

Of a good deed like this ! 



THE GOLDEN LEGEND. 193 

The Angel of Evil Deeds, with open hook. Not 
yet, not yet 
80 Is the red sun wholly set. 

But evermore recedes. 

While open still I bear 

The Book of Evil Deeds, 

To let the breathings of the upper air 
36 Visit its pages and erase 

The records from its face ! 

Fainter and fainter as I gaze 

In the broad blaze 

The glimmering landscape shines, 
40 And below me the black river 

Is hidden by wreaths of vapor ! 

Fainter and fainter the black lines 

Begin to quiver 

Along the whitening surface of the paper ; 
45 Shade after shade 

The terrible words grow faint and fade, 

And in their place 

Euns a white space ! 

Down goes the sun ! 
50 But the soul of one, 

Who by repentance 

Has escaped the dreadful sentence, 

Shines bright below me as I look. 

It is the end ! 
55 With closed Book 

To God do I ascend. 

Lo ! over the mountain steeps 
A dark, gigantic shadow sweeps 
13 



194 LONGFELLOW, 

Beneath my feet ; 
60 A blackness inwardly brightening 

With sullen heat, 

As a storm-cloud lurid with lightning 

And a cry of lamentation, 

Repeated and again repeated, 
65 Deep and loud 

As the reverberation 

Of cloud answering unto cloud. 

Swells and rolls away in the distance. 

As if the sheeted 
70 Lightning retreated. 

Baffled and thwarted by the wind's resistance. 

It is Lucifer, 

The son of mystery ; 

And since God suffers him to be, 
75 He, too, is God's minister. 

And labors for some good 

By us not understood ! * 

* The doctrine that evil is only perverted good {v. p, 62) is derived from 
both Jewish and Christian sources. The rabbis held that all evils are negative, 
because God cannot create evil, all his works being good ; sickness, death, 
poverty, ignorance, etc., are therefore privations of properties. St. Augustine 
also declares {Confessions, vii. 12) : "The origin of that evil which I sought to 
find is not any substance ; for if it were a substance, it would be good." Tliis 
is expressed in a sermon of Dr. South, who calls evil "only a privation or 
absence of good ; " and Emerson says : " Good is positive, evil is merely pri- 
vative, not absolute ; " and, " Evil is only good spoiled in the making." Cf. 
Henry V. iv. 1 : — 

"There is some soul of goodness in thmgs evil, 
Would men observingly distill it out." 

The poem ends, as it began, with the apparition of Lucifer ; but now only as 
" a dark, gigantic shadow sweeping over the mountain steeps, baffled and 
thwarted." 



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